Chlorine

Chlorine is the element with a split personality. In its pure form, it is a toxic yellow-green gas with a sharp smell — it was even used as a chemical weapon in World War I. But combine it with sodium and you get table salt, one of the most essential substances for human life. Chlorine was first produced in 1774 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, though he did not realize it was an element.

Chlorine's biggest everyday use is water purification. The chlorine in swimming pools and tap water kills harmful bacteria and makes water safe to drink. It is also used to make PVC plastic, which shows up in pipes, window frames, and vinyl records. Bleach is a chlorine compound used for disinfecting and whitening.

The symbol 'Cl' is a handy two-letter element in Spellement. It appears at the start of words like 'class,' 'clean,' and 'cloud,' matching a very common English letter combination. This makes chlorine a natural fit for creative element-based spelling.