What is the name of the bond formed when two atoms share a pair of electrons?

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What is the name of the bond formed when two atoms share a pair of electrons? It is a covalent bond.

In a covalent bond, two atoms share a pair of electrons known as a bonding pair. The shared electrons are attracted to both positively charged atomic nuclei, helping hold the atoms together. Covalent bonding commonly occurs between nonmetal atoms, whose electronegativities are often similar enough for sharing to be more favorable than complete electron transfer.

A single covalent bond contains one shared electron pair. A double bond contains two shared pairs, and a triple bond contains three. Hydrogen gas, H₂, has a single covalent bond; oxygen gas, O₂, has a double bond; and nitrogen gas, N₂, has a triple bond. Lewis structures represent these shared pairs as dots or lines.

Covalent sharing is not always perfectly equal. In water, oxygen attracts the shared electrons more strongly than hydrogen, creating polar covalent bonds. This differs from ionic bonding, where electrons are transferred to form oppositely charged ions. The idea of covalence was developed in early twentieth-century chemistry, especially through work by Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026

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