Which statement best describes the electronegativity of an element? a. electronegativity of an atom is its ability to lose electrons during cation formation. b. electronegativity of an atom is its ability to share electrons during a covalent bond formation. c. electronegativity of an atom is its ability to gain electrons during anion formation. d. electronegativity of an atom is its ability to produce energy while losing an electron. e. electronegativity of an atom is its ability to attract electrons during bond formation.

The correct answer is Option E.

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.

But 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.

Thus, the correct answer is Option E.

a electronegativity decreases beacuse the size of nucleus is bigger.