ケイ素そ

Don't confuse with

• シリコーン

  ケイ素 is the chemical element silicon (Si) itself, whereas シリコーン is a man-made polymer produced from silicon.

Word family

• ケイ素そ鋼こう

  silicon steel

• ケイ素そ樹じゅ脂し

  silicone resin

• 炭たん化かケイ素そ

  silicon carbide; SiC

• 窒ちっ化かケイ素そ

  silicon nitride

• 二に酸さん化かケイ素そ

  silicon dioxide; silica

• 四し塩えん化かケイ素そ

  silicon tetrachloride

Written forms

• ケイ素そUsage84%

  Standard modern spelling for silicon, using katakana for the element name.

• 珪けい素そUsage16%

  Older kanji form; still seen but less common than ケイ素.

• 硅けい素そ
  rarely-used kanji form

  Rarely used kanji form.

Etymology

From 珪 (kei, 'silicon') + 素 (so, 'element'). The kanji 珪 was originally used for silicon, but modern Japanese prefers the katakana form ケイ素.