Question

What term describes an atom's tendency to hold on on to electrons?

Answer 1

The term that describes an atom's tendency or ability to hold on to electrons and pull electron density from other atoms closer to itself is referred to as electronegativity. A very electronegative atom, will not only have a strong attraction to its electrons including the valence ones, but also to the valence electrons of other atoms, usually these are nonmetals.

Answer 2

Step-by-step explanation:

Electronegativity is the chemical property of an element. This is defined as the tendency of an atom to attract the shared pair of electrons towards itself when a bond is formed.

• This property of an atom increases as we move from left to right in a period because the number of charge on the nucleus increases.
• this property decreases as we move from top to bottom in a group because electrons get added up in the new shells which make it further far away from the nucleus.