Chemical Element | Definition, Origins, Distribution, & Facts - Britannica

Historical development of the concept of element

The modern concept of an element is unambiguous, depending as it does on the use of chemical and physical processes as a means of discriminating elements from compounds and mixtures. The existence of fundamental substances from which all matter is made, however, has been the basis of much theoretical speculation since the dawn of history. The ancient Greek philosophers Thales, Anaximenes, and Heracleitus each suggested that all matter is composed of one essential principle—or element. Thales believed this element to be water; Anaximenes suggested air; and Heracleitus, fire. Another Greek philosopher, Empedocles, expressed a different belief—that all substances are composed of four elements: air, earth, fire, and water. Aristotle agreed and emphasized that these four elements are bearers of fundamental properties, dryness and heat being associated with fire, heat and moisture with air, moisture and cold with water, and cold and dryness with earth. In the thinking of these philosophers all other substances were supposed to be combinations of the four elements, and the properties of substances were thought to reflect their elemental compositions. Thus, Greek thought encompassed the idea that all matter could be understood in terms of elemental qualities; in this sense, the elements themselves were thought of as nonmaterial. The Greek concept of an element, which was accepted for nearly 2,000 years, contained only one aspect of the modern definition—namely, that elements have characteristic properties.

In the latter part of the Middle Ages, as alchemists became more sophisticated in their knowledge of chemical processes, the Greek concepts of the composition of matter became less satisfactory. Additional elemental qualities were introduced to accommodate newly discovered chemical transformations. Thus, sulfur came to represent the quality of combustibility, mercury that of volatility or fluidity, and salt that of fixity in fire (or incombustibility). These three alchemical elements, or principles, also represented abstractions of properties reflecting the nature of matter, not physical substances.

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The important difference between a mixture and a chemical compound eventually was understood, and in 1661 the English chemist Robert Boyle recognized the fundamental nature of a chemical element. He argued that the four Greek elements could not be the real chemical elements because they cannot combine to form other substances nor can they be extracted from other substances. Boyle stressed the physical nature of elements and related them to the compounds they formed in the modern operational way.

In 1789 the French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier published what might be considered the first list of elemental substances based on Boyle’s definition. Lavoisier’s list of elements was established on the basis of a careful, quantitative study of decomposition and recombination reactions. Because he could not devise experiments to decompose certain substances, or to form them from known elements, Lavoisier included in his list of elements such substances as lime, alumina, and silica, which now are known to be very stable compounds. That Lavoisier still retained a measure of influence from the ancient Greek concept of the elements is indicated by his inclusion of light and heat (caloric) among the elements.

Also called: element (Show more) Key People: Lothar Meyer Antoine Lavoisier Dmitri Mendeleev Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau Joseph Loschmidt (Show more) Related Topics: rare-earth element isotope transition metal periodic law transactinoid element (Show more) On the Web: Chemistry LibreTexts - Chemical Elements (Feb. 19, 2026) (Show more) See all related content Explore Britannica Premium!

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Seven substances recognized today as elements—gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, and mercury—were known to the ancients because they occur in nature in relatively pure form. They are mentioned in the Bible and in an early Hindu medical treatise, the Caraka-samhita. Sixteen other elements were discovered in the second half of the 18th century, when methods of separating elements from their compounds became better understood. Eighty-two more followed after the introduction of quantitative analytical methods.