Sesquioxide


A sesquioxide is an oxide containing three atoms of oxygen with two atoms of another element. For example, aluminium oxide is a sesquioxide.
Many sesquioxides contain the metal in the +3 oxidation state and the oxide ion, e.g., Al2O3, La2O3. The alkali metal sesquioxides are exceptions and contain both peroxide, and superoxide, ions, e.g., Rb2O3 is formulated . Sesquioxides of iron and aluminium are found in soil.
Sesquioxidizing, meaning the creation of a sesquioxide, is the highest scoring word that would fit on a Scrabble board, though it does not actually appear in any official Scrabble dictionary. Though the Oxford English Dictionary already listed the noun and the past participle adjective — sesquioxidation and sesquioxidized, respectively — the verb, sesquioxidize, and its conjugated forms, have been absent from the dictionaries used as sources for the official Scrabble word lists. An early appearance of the noted present participle had occurred in the 1860 publication of the State of New York's Legislative Assembly's Transactions of the State Medical Society, yet the word's first appearance in a dictionary was in the 1976 edition of Josepha Heifetz Byrne's Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, One could theoretically score 2044 points in a single move, when otherwise only words from the official Scrabble word list are used.

List of sesquioxides



N2O3

Al2O3

P2O3, existing as P4O6

Cl2O3

Sc2O3

Ti2O3

V2O3

Cr2O3

Mn2O3

Fe2O3

Co2O3

Ni2O3

Ga2O3

As2O3

Br2O3

Y2O3

Nb2O3

In2O3

Ir2O3

Pb2O3

Sb2O3

Tb2O3

Eu2O3

Nd2O3

Sm2O3

Pr2O3

Tm2O3

Yb2O3