Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Relating to or being a chemical element that tends to bond with sulfur and form highly insoluble, dense sulfide minerals. Compounds with chalcophile elements are usually heavier than those with lithophile elements and are thought to fall into a planet's interior but remain above the core when the planet is largely molten during its formation.
  • noun A chalcophile element.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chemistry, geology in the Goldschmidt classification, an element such as copper that forms sulphide minerals if sufficient sulphur is available.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German chalkophil : Greek khalkos, copper + –phile (from the fact that chalcophile elements are concentrated in the same formations as copper).]

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