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atomic radius

Any measure of the size of atoms

Also known as radius of an atom · atom radius

Instance of: chemical formalism
Subclass of: physical property
, radius
, approximation

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

The atomic radius of a chemical element is a measure of the size of its atom, usually the mean or typical distance from the center of the nucleus to the outermost isolated electron. Since the boundary is not a well-defined physical entity, there are various non-equivalent definitions of atomic radius. Five widely used definitions of atomic radius are covalent radius, Van der Waals radius, charge radius, ionic radius, and metallic radius. Typically, because of the difficulty to isolate atoms in order to measure their radii separately, the atomic radius is measured in a chemically bonded state; however, theoretical calculations are simpler when considering atoms in isolation. The dependencies on environment, probe, and state lead to a multiplicity of definitions.

Overview

All data

16 statements · 13% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

ISQ dimension: \mathsf{L}
Main Wikidata property: atomic radius

On other databases

11 identifiers linking atomic radius across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

13%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 8, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). atomic radius (Q483788). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/atomic-radius-Q483788