Plural of chloride; chemical compounds formed when chlorine combines with another element, such as sodium chloride (table salt) or hydrogen chloride.
From chlorine (discovered 1774) + the suffix -ide (meaning binary compound). The term was systematized in 19th-century chemical nomenclature to describe salts and compounds of chlorine.
Chlorides are absolutely everywhere—your table salt is sodium chloride, swimming pools use calcium hypochlorite, and your stomach acid contains hydrochloric acid, yet most people never think about the chlorine connection.
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