About
The character 锂 is a phono-semantic compound with the semantic radical 钅 (jīn, "metal") on the left and the phonetic component 里 (lǐ) on the right. Its traditional form is 鋰, using the full metal radical 金. This modern character was created for the periodic table to represent lithium, a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. The phonetic component 里 was chosen to approximate the first syllable of "lithium", while the metal radical correctly classifies the element as a metallic substance.