atomicityn.

1859 A. W. Hofmann in Chem. Gaz. 1 Oct. 378 We know of many cases in which, under conditions not sufficiently established, the atomicity of a molecule changes: witness the radical ‘allyl’, which is capable of replacing one or three equivalents of hydrogen.

1873 J. P. Cooke New Chem. (1874) xii. 278 The number of these replaceable atoms measures what is called the atomicity of the compound.

1925 H. C. Booth tr. F. Auerbach Mod. Magnetics (U.K. ed.) iv. 89 The atomicity is of influence on the magnetizability; thus, for example, ferri- and ferro-salts have by no means the same atomic magnetizability.

1954 A. J. Berry From Classical to Mod. Chem. vi. 161 The beginnings of ideas on the subject of valency or, as it was for many years termed, atomicity, are traceable in the works of Hofmann, Williamson, Odling, Wurtz and others.

1992 W. H. Brock Fontana Hist. Chem. vii. 250 Kekulé referred to the atomicities or basicities of the elements themselves instead of radicals.

1887 M. M. P. Muir & C. Slater Elem. Chem. xvi. 222 The expression atomicity of a molecule is used to denote the number of atoms which form the gaseous molecule of an element or compound.

1895 Proc. Royal Soc. 59 257 The spark-gap at atmospheric pressure varied in length inversely as the atomicity of the gas.

1938 R. Hum Chem. for Engin. Students vii. 134 The atomicity of hydrogen is two.

1982 G. C. Hill & J. S. Holman Chem. in Context: Lab. Man. & Study Guide 174/1 If the formula of a gaseous element is written as X₂(g) we can deduce that it has..an atomicity of two.

1868 N. Amer. Rev. July 135 The utilitarian point of view..is not at all apparent in..Gerhardt's theory of atomicity, in Cuvier's classification of animals, or in Darwin's investigation into the principles of variation.

1870 J. Scoffern Stray Leaves Sci. & Folk-lore 63 The atomicity or non-atomicity of matter will probably never be determined.

1920 A. S. Eddington Space, Time & Gravitation xii. 199 Atomicity is by no means confined to matter and electricity; the quantum, which plays so great a part in recent physics, is apparently an atom of action.

1961 Jrnl. Appl. Physics 32 2206 A new approach to the polaron theory is applicable which takes into account the atomicity of the lattice and presence of thermal phonons.

1990 E. Harth Dawn of Millennium vii. 109 Then there was the idea of atomicity: all matter consists of small invisible particles, each indivisible.

1896 Philos. Rev. 5 249 Empiricism applied the atomic philosophy to states of consciousness... But the atomicity..tends to be forgotten, and the soul life is construed as an activity of some sort.

1940 B. Russell Inq. into Meaning & Truth xii. 169 Can we construct an adequate language in which the principle of atomicity holds?

1947 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 60 127 Temporal atomicity means that time is made up of discrete instants that do not coalesce and cannot be indefinitely sub-divided.

1959 B. Russell My Philos. Devel. x. 118 The principle of atomicity is stated by Wittgenstein in the following terms: ‘Every statement about complexes can be analysed into a statement about their constituent parts, and into those propositions which completely describe the complexes’ (Tractatus, 2.0201).

2000 Philos. Q. 50 195 Some writers on logical form even formulate a criterion for atomicity.