How to Write 锝 (dé) — Meaning “Technetium”

Imagine a scientist saying 'I finally obtained (得) a new metal (钅) from my experiment!' — that metal is technetium (锝). The sound 'dé' matches both the character's pronunciation and the idea of 'getting' it.

When writing the left radical 钅, the last stroke is a vertical hook (竖提), not a straight vertical line. On the right side 得, be careful to write the 日 part narrow and include the dot in the 寸 section at the bottom.

All three share the metal radical 钅, so focus on the right side: 锝 has 得 (dé, meaning 'obtain'), 铐 has 考 (kǎo, meaning 'examine' or 'handcuff'), and 铑 has 老 (lǎo, meaning 'old'). Their meanings are different: 锝 is technetium, 铐 is handcuffs, and 铑 is rhodium.

锝 is used mainly in scientific and medical contexts, because technetium is an artificial radioactive element employed in nuclear medicine for diagnostic imaging. It rarely appears in daily conversation, but it is an important term in chemistry and radiology.

Common words containing 锝 include: 锝元素 (dé yuán sù) — The element technetium; 锝原子 (dé yuán zi) — Technetium atom; 提取锝 (tí qǔ dé) — To extract technetium.