-
- To save this word, you'll need to log in.
: a silvery malleable fusible chiefly trivalent metallic element that occurs especially in sphalerite ores and is used especially as a plating material, in alloys, and in electronics see Chemical Elements Table
Examples of indium in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Mongolia is an acute illustration of the geopolitical, environmental, and economic challenges facing mineral-rich nations seeking to benefit from emerging technologies, whether supplying indium for flat-screen TVs, rhenium for jet engines, or gallium for smartphones.
—TIME, 14 May 2024
Zinc, silver, lead, tin, and indium high grade outliers were constrained during interpolation on a per domain basis.
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 Feb. 2024
Inferred Zinc Zone Mineral Resource of 31.2 Mt grading 4.21% zinc, 14.5 g/t silver, 0.2% lead & 45 g/t indium containing:
2.90 billion pounds of zinc;
14.6 million ounces of silver;
133 million pounds of lead; and
1,414 tonnes of indium.
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 Feb. 2024
This sidesteps the usual problems that stem from adding indium.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 June 2023
Using indium gallium arsenide, engineers in South Korea recently made high-performance logic transistors on plastic that hardly suffered when bent around a radius of just 4 millimeters.
—Samuel K. Moore, IEEE Spectrum, 26 Nov. 2022
Adding indium shifts the wavelength of light toward red but also lowers efficiency.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 June 2023
In most devices, this layer is made from a compound known as indium tin oxide (ITO), which is rigid, expensive to manufacture, and requires the rare metal indium.
—Byluis Melecio-Zambrano, science.org, 23 Feb. 2023
Institute of Photonics/LUH The first section of the chip features an optical amplifier built out of indium phosphide, a material that has already been widely used to create semiconductor lasers.
—IEEE Spectrum, 17 Apr. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'indium.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
International Scientific Vocabulary ind- + New Latin -ium
First Known Use
1864, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing indium
Dictionary Entries Near indium
Cite this Entry
“Indium.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indium. Accessed 10 Jun. 2024.
Medical Definition
indium
noun
in·di·um
ˈin-dē-əm
: a malleable fusible silvery metallic element that is chiefly trivalent, occurs especially in sphalerite ores, and is used as a plating for bearings, in alloys having a low melting point, and in making transistors
—symbol In
see Chemical Elements Table
More from Merriam-Webster on indium
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about indium
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share