element

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the most favorable environment for a plant or animal

   water is the element of fishes

2. 2
   noun

   the situation in which you are happiest and most effective

   in your element

3. 3
   noun

   any of the more than 100 known substances, of which 92 occur naturally, that cannot be separated into simpler substances and that singly or in combination constitute all matter

   Elements are fundamental in chemistry.

4. 4
   noun

   one of four substances thought in ancient and medieval cosmology to constitute the physical universe

   the alchemists believed that there were four elements

5. 5
   noun

   One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based.

   Letters are the elements of written language.

6. 6
   noun

   A small part of the whole.

   an element of the picture

7. 7
   noun

   A small but present amount of a quality, a hint.

   an element of doubt

8. 8
   noun

   The sky.

   Sometimes, solitude is of all things my wish; and the awful silence of the night, the spangled element, and the rising and setting sun, how promotive of contemplation!

Etymology

From Middle English element, from Old French element, from Latin elementum (“a first principle, element, rudiment”) (see further etymology there). The verb is from Middle English elementen, from the noun.