are used to describe ions in the charge states 1, 2, 3, and so on, respectively. Polyvalence or multivalence refers to species that are not restricted to a specific number of valence bonds. Species with a single charge are univalent (monovalent). For example, the cation is a univalent or monovalent cation, whereas the cation is a divalent cation, and the cation is a trivalent cation. Unlike Cs and Ca, Fe can also exist in other charge states, notably 2+ and 4+, and is thus known as a multivalent (polyvalent) ion. Transition metals and metals to the right are typically multivalent but there is no simple pattern predicting their valency. † The same adjectives are also used in medicine to refer to vaccine valence, with the slight difference that in the latter sense, quadri- is more common than tetra-. ‡ As demonstrated by hit counts in Google web search and Google Books search corpora (accessed 2017). § A few other forms can be found in large English-language corpora (for example, *quintavalent, *quintivalent, *decivalent), but they are not the conventionally established forms in English and thus are not entered in major dictionaries. Valence versus oxidation state Because of the ambiguity of the term valence, other notations are currently preferred. Beside the system of oxidation states (also called oxidation numbers) as used in Stock nomenclature for coordination compounds, and the lambda notation, as used in the IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry, oxidation state is a more clear indication of the electronic state of atoms in a molecule. The oxidation state of an atom in a molecule gives the number of valence electrons it has gained or lost. In contrast to the valency number, the oxidation state can be positive (for an electropositive atom) or negative (for an electronegative atom). Elements in a high oxidation state have an oxidation state higher than +4, and also, elements in a high valence state (hypervalent elements) have a valence higher than 4. For example, in perchlorates , chlorine has 7 valence bonds (thus, it is heptavalent, in other words, it has valence 7), and it has oxidation state +7; in ruthenium tetroxide , ruthenium has 8 valence bonds (thus, it is octavalent, in other words, it has valence 8), and it has oxidation state +8. In some scenarios, the difference between valence and oxidation state arises. Valence and oxidation state of the same atom may not be