Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun element

7 senses of element

Sense 1
component, constituent, element, factor, ingredient -- (an abstract part of something; "jealousy was a component of his character"; "two constituents of a musical composition are melody and harmony"; "the grammatical elements of a sentence"; "a key factor in her success"; "humor: an effective ingredient of a speech")
       => part, section, division -- (one of the portions into which something is regarded as divided and which together constitute a whole; "the written part of the exam"; "the finance section of the company"; "the BBC's engineering division")

Sense 2
component, constituent, element -- (an artifact that is one of the individual parts of which a composite entity is made up; especially a part that can be separated from or attached to a system; "spare components for cars"; "a component or constituent element of a system")
       => part, portion -- (something less than the whole of a human artifact; "the rear part of the house"; "glue the two parts together")

Sense 3
chemical element, element -- (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)
       => substance -- (the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists; "DNA is the substance of our genes")

Sense 4
element -- (the most favorable environment for a plant or animal; "water is the element of fishes")
       => environment, environs, surroundings, surround -- (the area in which something exists or lives; "the country--the flat agricultural surround")

Sense 5
element -- (one of four substances thought in ancient and medieval cosmology to constitute the physical universe; "the alchemists believed that there were four elements")
       => substance -- (the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists; "DNA is the substance of our genes")

Sense 6
element -- (the situation in which you are happiest and most effective; "in your element")
       => situation, state of affairs -- (the general state of things; the combination of circumstances at a given time; "the present international situation is dangerous"; "wondered how such a state of affairs had come about"; "eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation"- Franklin D.Roosevelt)

Sense 7
element -- (a straight line that generates a cylinder or cone)
       => straight line -- (a line traced by a point traveling in a constant direction; a line of zero curvature; "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line")