A chemical symbol is an abbreviation or short representation of the name of a chemical element. Natural elements all have symbols of one or two letters; some man-made elements have temporary symbols of three letters. It has been suggested that Acronym and initialism be merged into this article or section. ... A chemical element, often called simply element, is the class of atoms which contain the same number of protons. ...

Chemical symbols are listed in the periodic table and are used as shorthand and in chemical equations, e.g., The periodic table of the chemical elements, also called the Mendeleev periodic table, is a tabular display of the known chemical elements. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

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Because chemical symbols are often derived from the Latin or Greek name of the element, they may not bear much similar to the common English name, e.g., Na for sodium (Latin natrium) and Au for gold (Latin aurum). Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... General Name, Symbol, Number sodium, Na, 11 Chemical series alkali metals Group, Period, Block 1, 3, s Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 22. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ...

In China, each chemical element is assigned an ideograph as its symbol; most of them have been explicitly created for this purpose (see Chinese characters for chemical elements). A chemical element, often called simply element, is the class of atoms which contain the same number of protons. ... 漢字 hànzì, hanja, kanji… in Traditional Chinese and other languages. ... Below is a periodic table using Chinese characters as symbols for chemical elements. ...

Chemical symbols may also be changed to show if one particular isotope of an atom that is specified, as well as to show other attributes such as ionization and oxidation state of a chemical compound. Isotopes are forms of an element whose nuclei have the same atomic number–-the number of protons in the nucleus--but different atomic masses because they contain different numbers of neutrons. ... ... The most fundamental reactions in chemistry are the redox processes. ...

For complete listings of the chemical elements and their symbols, see:

• List of elements by symbol
• List of elements by name
• List of elements by number
• Periodic table of the elements