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helium-3

helium-3 noun: the rare isotope of helium, 32He, that has a single neutron.

helium-3: the rare isotope of helium, 32He, that has a single neutron
Image: SM358, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

helium-3 (uncountable)

  1. The rare isotope of helium, 32He, that has a single neutron.
    • With its magnetic field drastically weakened and much of its atmosphere lost, what remains intact of H-047c's surface is vulnerable to cosmic radiation. This has rendered the soil unable to support life, though it is a potential source of valuable helium-3.2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (science fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: H-047c Codex entry
    • What Interlune is trying to do [the startup aims to develop robotic lunar mining camps] is far from child’s play. Helium-3, an industrially prized cousin of the isotope of the gas we use to fill party balloons, is rare on Earth. In 2024 it sold for $2,500 per liter, or roughly $19 million a...2025 September 2, Jeremy Bogaisky, “This Startup Is Racing To Be The First To Mine Helium On The Moon”, in Forbes

Questions about helium-3

What does helium-3 mean?
Helium-3 means the rare isotope of helium, 32He, that has a single neutron.
What part of speech is helium-3?
Helium-3 is a noun.

Words near helium-3 in the dictionary

  1. helium stars
  2. helium unscrambler
  3. helium unscramblers
  4. helium variable
  5. helium variables
  6. helium-3
  7. helium-4
  8. heliumide
  9. heliumides
  10. heliumless
  11. heliumlike

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: helium-3 (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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