Word.ws English Dictionary

valency

Syllables: val·ency/ˈveɪ.lən.si/

valency noun: the capacity of something to combine with other things, as for example the capability of a vaccine as measured by the number of pathogen serotypes that it can counteract. Also the alternative form of valence.

Noun

valency (countable and uncountable, plural valencies)

  1. (Britain, broadly, uncountable) The capacity of something to combine with other things, as for example the capability of a vaccine as measured by the number of pathogen serotypes that it can counteract.
    • vaccine valency
    • Some etymons appear to have greater valency than others when it comes to the formation of portmanteau words.2018, James Lambert, “A Multitude of ‘Lishes’: The Nomenclature of Hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 10
  2. (Britain, countable) The number of edges connected to a vertex in a graph.
    Synonyms:
    degree
  3. (Britain, uncountable) Importance, significance.

Also used as

valency is also the alternative form of valence.

Synonyms of valency

Forms of valency

pluralvalencies

Origin of valency

From Late Latin valentia and Latin valentia (“bodily strength; health; vigour”) + English -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition, quality, or state). Valentia is derived from valēns (“healthy, strong, vigorous”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns); while valēns is the present active participle of valeō (“to be healthy, sound, or well; to be strong; to have influence or power, etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“to rule; powerful, strong”). Sense 1 (“combining capacity of an atom”) and sense 3 (“number of arguments a verb can have”) are possibly from valence + -y.

Words formed from valency

Questions about valency

What does valency mean?
Valency means the capacity of something to combine with other things, as for example the capability of a vaccine as measured by the number of pathogen serotypes that it can counteract.
What part of speech is valency?
Valency is a noun.
How do you pronounce valency?
Valency is pronounced /ˈveɪ.lən.si/ (UK).
What is the plural of valency?
The plural of valency is valencies.

Words near valency in the dictionary

  1. valenciaxanthin
  2. Valenciennes
  3. Valenciennes lace
  4. Valenciennes laces
  5. valencies
  6. valency
  7. Valengin
  8. valenki
  9. valenok
  10. Valens
  11. valent

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: valency (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-valency.wav.

Cite this entry: “valency.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/valency. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.