Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
electronegativity
Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics
Images & Videos
A periodic table chart displays the electronegativity values for each element, with values increasing from left to right and decreasing from top to bottom, highlighting how strongly atoms attract shared electrons.
The chemistry of water
Quick Facts
Related Topics:
chemical bonding
See all related content
Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

electronegativity

physics
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
Last updated
•History

electronegativity, in chemistry, the ability of an atom to attract to itself an electron pair shared with another atom in a chemical bond.

The commonly used measure of the electronegativities of chemical elements is the electronegativity scale derived by Linus Pauling in 1932. In it the elements are tabulated in decreasing order of electronegativity, fluorine being the most electronegative and cesium the least. The scale was derived from a comparison of the energies associated with chemical bonds between various combinations of atoms. A scale very similar to Pauling’s values has been obtained by measurements of atomic ionization potentials and electron affinities.

Elements differing greatly in electronegativity tend to form ionic compounds, composed of positively and negatively charged units called ions; those differing moderately in electronegativity form polar, covalent compounds, in which atoms are held together by chemical bonds but which show some degree of ionization, while those elements with approximately equal electronegativities form nonpolar compounds, which show little charge separation.

Diagram showing four types of crystal bonding: ionic bonding with sodium and chlorine ions, covalent bonding with carbon atoms sharing electrons, metallic bonding with iron ions surrounded by free electrons, and molecular bonding with hydrogen molecules held by weak electrical attraction.
More From Britannica
chemical bonding: Electronegativity