Definition of "vanadium" []

• A bright white, soft, ductile metallic element found in several minerals, notably vanadinite and carnotite, having good structural strength and used in rust-resistant high-speed tools, as a carbon stabilizer in some steels, as a titanium-steel bonding agent, and as a catalyst. Atomic number 23; atomic weight 50.942; melting point 1,890°C; boiling point 3,000°C; specific gravity 6.11; valence 2, 3, 4, 5. See Table at element. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In the journal Science, researchers at the University of California-Irvine say they've manipulated a bacterial enzyme called vanadium nitrogenase that usually produces ammonia from nitrogen gas."
• "One promising flow battery type is called a vanadium redox battery, and the way it works sheds some light on why these batteries can last so long."
• "As it happened, in addition to radium, carnotite rock also contained much larger quantities of a metal called vanadium, which proved to be a hardening agent when blended into steel."