(ˌ)zərˈkōnēəm, zəˈ-, zə̄ˈ-, zəiˈ- noun
( -s )
Etymology: New Latin, from International Scientific Vocabulary zircon + New Latin -ium
: a steel-gray strong ductile high-melting chiefly tetravalent metallic element that occurs widely in combined form especially in zircon and baddeleyite, that is now obtained usually from sands containing zircon by heating with carbon and chlorine and passing the volatile zirconium tetrachloride formed into hot molten magnesium or sodium to yield a spongy form of the free metal containing up to three percent of hafnium, that resembles titanium and hafnium chemically and in massive form has good corrosion resistance at ordinary or moderately elevated temperatures, and that is used in spinnerets for viscose rayon, in getters for vacuum tubes, in steel making, and when freed from hafnium in nuclear reactors as a structural material and as a cladding material for uranium because of its ability to allow the passage of low-speed neutrons — symbol Zr ; see element table