ˈthalēəm noun
( -s )
Etymology: New Latin, from thall- + -ium; from the bright green line in its spectrum
: a sparsely but widely distributed metallic element that resembles tin in appearance but on exposure to air readily forms a gray and then brown-black coating of oxide, that is malleable like lead but a little softer, that occurs combined in a few minerals (as crookesite and lorandite) and in smaller amounts in various other minerals and in plants, that is usually obtained from flue dusts from pyrites burners or from lead and zinc smelters and refiners, that is very poisonous and principally univalent but sometimes trivalent in its compounds, and that forms alloys but is used chiefly in the form of compounds (as the sulfide in photoelectric cells) — symbol Tl ; see actinium series , thorium series , uranium series ; see element table