What is meant by the term 'Electronegativity'

Electronegativity, as denoted by the Greek letter 'chi', is the tendency of an atom to attract bonding electrons within a covalent bond. Let us unravel what this means. The term electronegativity may only be applied to two atoms joined by a covalent bond because atoms joined by an ionic bond can only have an integer charge (such as Na+ and Cl- present in common salt with a full positive and negative charge respectively). However a covalent bond is the sharing of electrons without creating an integer charge because both atoms involved have a partial charge instead. Thus a partial charge gives rise to polarity which induces an electric dipole moment causing an attractive force to exist between the electrons of the atoms and so leading to this concept.

Answered by Yeshurun T. Chemistry tutor

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