What does electronegativity describe?

What does electronegativity describe?

• A. A tendency of an atom to attract electrons in a chemical bond.
• B. A tendency of an atom to lose electrons.
• C. The size of an atom's nucleus.
• D. The number of neutrons in an atom.

Answer: (A)

Electronegativity describes how strongly an atom attracts electrons in a chemical bond. It explains why bonded electrons aren’t always shared equally—atoms with higher electronegativity pull the shared electrons closer, creating partial negative charge on themselves and partial positive charge on the other atom. This isn’t about losing electrons, the size of the nucleus, or how many neutrons an atom has. It’s about the pull on bonding electrons. For example, in a bond between hydrogen and fluorine, fluorine attracts the shared electrons much more, making the bond polar with a partial negative charge on fluorine and a partial positive charge on hydrogen. Larger electronegativity differences lead to more polar (or even ionic) bonds, while small differences yield nonpolar covalent bonds. Electronegativity generally increases across a period and decreases down a group.

Electronegativity describes how strongly an atom attracts electrons in a chemical bond. It explains why bonded electrons aren’t always shared equally—atoms with higher electronegativity pull the shared electrons closer, creating partial negative charge on themselves and partial positive charge on the other atom. This isn’t about losing electrons, the size of the nucleus, or how many neutrons an atom has. It’s about the pull on bonding electrons. For example, in a bond between hydrogen and fluorine, fluorine attracts the shared electrons much more, making the bond polar with a partial negative charge on fluorine and a partial positive charge on hydrogen. Larger electronegativity differences lead to more polar (or even ionic) bonds, while small differences yield nonpolar covalent bonds. Electronegativity generally increases across a period and decreases down a group.