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Which atom has a partial negative charge in hydrogen chloride?

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Diagram showing the formation of a polar covalent bond in a water molecule, with two hydrogen atoms bonding to one oxygen atom to form H2O, illustrating shared electrons and chemical reaction. — covalent bond In polar covalent bonds, such as that between hydrogen and oxygen atoms, the electrons are not transferred from one atom to the other as they are in an ionic bond. Instead, some outer electrons merely spend more time in the vicinity of the other atom. The effect of this orbital distortion is to induce regional net charges that hold the atoms together, such as in water molecules.

In a molecule of hydrogen chloride (HCl), the chlorine atom carries the partial negative charge.1

This occurs because chlorine is more electronegative than hydrogen. In a covalent bond, electronegativity refers to an atom's ability to attract shared electrons toward itself. Because chlorine has a greater attraction for the shared electron pair than hydrogen does, it pulls those electrons closer, acquiring a partial negative charge, while the hydrogen atom acquires a partial positive charge.123