What is "pnictogen"

n. (context chemistry English) Any element from group 15 of the periodic table; nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and bismuth.

A pnictogen is one of the chemical elements in group 15 of the periodic table. This group is also known as the nitrogen family. It consists of the elements nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), bismuth (Bi), and perhaps also the chemically uncharacterized synthetic element ununpentium (Uup).

In modern IUPAC notation, it is called Group 15. In CAS and the old IUPAC systems it was called Group VA and Group VB respectively (pronounced "group five A" and "group five B", "V" for the Roman numeral 5). In the field of semiconductor physics, it is still usually called Group V. The "five" ("V") in the historical names comes from the " pentavalency" of nitrogen, reflected by the stoichiometry of compounds such as NO.

The term pnictogen (or pnigogen) is derived from the Ancient Greek word πνίγειν (pnígein) meaning "to choke", referring to the choking or stifling property of nitrogen gas.