palladium
noun
- a safeguard, especially one viewed as a guarantee of the integrity of social institutions: the Bill of Rights, palladium of American civil liberties
- a sacred object that was believed to have the power to preserve a city or state possessing it
noun
- chemical element with an atomic number of 46
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /pəˈleɪdiəm/
name
- A wooden statue of great antiquity on which the safety of Troy and later Rome was said to depend.
noun
Etymology: The element was named after Pallas, an asteroid that had been discovered two years before the element.
- A chemical element (symbol Pd) with an atomic number of 46: a rare, lustrous silvery-white metal.
- A single atom of this element.