Lewis structures (also known as
Lewis dot diagrams,
electron dot diagrams,
Lewis dot formulas, Lewis dot structures, and
electron dot structures) are diagrams that show the
bonding between
atoms of a
molecule and the
lone pairs of
electrons that may exist in the molecule. A Lewis structure can be drawn for any
covalently bonded molecule, as well as
coordination compounds. The Lewis structure was named after
Gilbert N. Lewis, who introduced it in his 1916 article
The Atom and the Molecule. They are similar to electron dot diagrams in that the valence electrons in lone pairs are represented as dots, but they also contain lines to represent
shared pairs in a chemical bond (single, double, triple, etc.).