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All words

adjective

covalent

(chemistry) involving the sharing of electron pairs between atoms

In a sentence

Six example sentences with covalent, each labelled with its topic.

  • In a covalent bond the two atoms share a pair of electrons rather than one handing them over.

    Science

  • The drug locks onto the enzyme with a covalent link, so the effect lasts until the cell builds a replacement.

    Medicine

  • Diamond is hard because every carbon sits in a covalent lattice, each atom gripping four neighbors at once.

    Technology

  • Kneading dough builds covalent bridges between gluten proteins, which is why a well-worked loaf holds its shape.

    Cooking

  • Many plastics resist decay because their long covalent backbone gives soil microbes nothing easy to bite into.

    Environment

  • Lewis sketched the covalent bond as a shared pair of dots in 1916, years before anyone could observe electrons.

    History

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