Final answer:
Binary ionic compounds consist of a monatomic metal cation and a monatomic nonmetal anion. The cation is named first using the metal's name, and the anion's name is the nonmetal's root name with the suffix -ide added.
Step-by-step explanation:
A binary ionic compound is composed of two different elements: a monatomic metal cation and a monatomic nonmetal anion. When naming this type of compound, the cation is named first and is simply the name of the metal. The anion follows and is named by taking the stem of the nonmetal element's name and adding the suffix -ide.
For instance, Na₂O, which is composed of sodium ions (Na+) and oxide ions (O²⁻), is named sodium oxide. In binary ionic compounds, the word ion is typically dropped from both the cation and the anion in the name of the compound. Also, when dealing with transition metals that can have multiple positive charges, a Roman numeral indicates the charge of the cation as seen in iron(III) chloride.