钚

鈈
bù
noun #12,760

Meanings

  1. 1 plutonium (Pu, element 94)

Examples

HSK 7-9
Bù shì zhìzào héwǔqì de guānjiàn cáiliào.
Plutonium is a key material for making nuclear weapons.
HSK 7-9
Héfǎnyìngduī kěyǐ chǎnshēng bù.
Nuclear reactors can produce plutonium.

Tips

memory
The radical 钅 (金) indicates a metal element, and 不 gives the approximate pronunciation. Most Chinese element names follow this pattern: metal radical + phonetic component.

Components

radical
钅 jīn
metal; gold (left-side radical form of 金)
Left-side metal radical marking 钚 as a chemical element. Most modern element names in Chinese were coined by adding 钅 to a phonetic; this puts 钚 in the same coined-element series as 钠 sodium, 钾 potassium, 镁 magnesium, 铀 uranium.
phonetic
不 bù
not
Right 不 supplies the sound - bù matches the modern Chinese transliteration of 'plutonium' (Pu, /pu/), with 不 chosen for its bù reading rather than any 'not' meaning. A textbook example of the 20th-century elemental naming convention.

Stroke Order

钚 bù