rare-earth element

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rare-earth element

(râr′ûrth′)

Any of a group of 17 naturally occurring metallic elements that have similar properties, consisting of scandium, yttrium, and the 15 elements with atomic numbers 57 through 71 (the lanthanides). The rare-earth elements are widely used in electronics and other high-tech products.

[rare earth.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

rare′-earth′ el`ement

any of a group of closely related metallic elements, comprising the lanthanides, scandium, and yttrium, that are chemically similar in having the same number of valence electrons. Also called rare′-earth′ met`al.

[1955–60]

rare-earth element

(râr′ûrth′)

See lanthanide.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

rare-earth element - any element of the lanthanide series (atomic numbers 57 through 71)

lanthanide, lanthanoid, lanthanon, rare earth

group, grouping - any number of entities (members) considered as a unit

terbium metal - a separate group of related lanthanides, including terbium, europium, gadolinium, and sometimes dysprosium

References in periodicals archive ?

Crystal-chemical controls on rare-earth element concentrations in fossil biogenic apatites and implications for paleoenvironmental reconstructions.

Rare earth elements (REEs) in vertebrate microremains from the upper Pridoli Ohesaare beds of Saaremaa Island, Estonia: geochemical clues to palaeoenvironment

Canada-based Innovation Metals Corporation has chosen Becancour Waterfront Industrial Park in Quebec for setting up the world's first independent, centralised rare-earth element separation facilities.

-Innovation Metals Corporation selects Industrial Park in Quebec as centralised rare-earth element separation plant

GWMG said GWTI will form the basis of its marketing strategy for specific products the company expects to produce from its 100-percent-owned, rare-earth element project at Hoidas Lake in northern Saskatchewan.

GWTI to Purchase NiMH Powder Production Equipment From ECD

Department of Energy's Ames (Iowa) Laboratory have refined a process that makes it commercially viable to recover a valuable rare-earth element from tons of stockpiled magnetic scrap.

Turning Magnetic Scrap Into Valuable Alloy

The researchers measured the abundances of two isotopes of neodymium, a rare-earth element, in a Greenland rock that dates back about 3.8 billion years.

Taking a chemical look at the early Earth

Seawater rare-earth element patterns preserved in apatite of Pennsylvanian conodonts?

Palaeoenvironmental signatures revealed from rare earth element (REE) compositions of vertebrate microremains of the Vesiku Bone Bed (Homerian, Wenlock), Saaremaa Island, Estonia

The Nd-YAG laser--which has at its core the rare-earth element neodymium grown on a crystal of yttrium-aluminumgarnet--vaporises soft organic material in dental cavities, but is too weak to damage healthy enamel, he says.

Cleaning cavities with a light touch

Alex Muller of the IBM Zurich (Switzerland) Research Center found superconductivity at 30 K in a compound involving the rare-earth element yttrium and copper oxide.

Thallium, bismuth superconductivity

The proportion of one rare-earth element to another in any sample of dirt or rock tends to be fairly constant, explains Gordon.

Rare earths: oil's signature in the air

Taiwan's rare earth mineral, called 'monazite,' contains more than 50 percent of rare-earth elements, according to Business Weekly.

Business Weekly: A reserve of rare earth minerals keeps Taiwan's hope of developing nuclear weapons alive

China may restrict imports to the United States of strategically vital "rare-earth elements (REE)," which are indispensable to advanced technologies and weapons, as it strikes back at president Donald Trump for his two-front economic war against it.