dicharged

Dicharged is an adjective used to describe something that carries two electric charges. The term is formed from the prefix di- meaning two and the word charged, and it is sometimes encountered in scientific writing as a shorthand way to indicate a two-charge state. In formal chemistry and physics, more precise terminology is typically preferred, such as divalent to indicate a species with a +2 or a -2 overall charge, or dianionic/dication for ions with a -2 or +2 charge respectively.

In chemical contexts, dicharged may be applied to ions, typically described as divalent cations or divalent anions. For example, ions like Ca2+ or Mg2+ have a +2 charge and can be described as dicharged in informal usage, though the standard terms divalent or bivalent are more common. For polyatomic ions, anions with a -2 charge (e.g., SO4^2−) are more accurately called dianions rather than dicharged; similarly, dications refer to species with a +2 charge on a single ion.

Dicharged can also appear in discussions of materials science, solid-state chemistry, or crystallography to denote defects, dopants, or charge distributions that collectively bear two charges. In such contexts the exact arrangement—whether two charges reside on a single unit or are distributed across sites—depends on the system and should be clarified by explicit notation.

Because the term is uncommon and potentially ambiguous, it is generally better to use explicit charge notation or standard terms like divalent, dianionic, or dication/dianion to avoid confusion.