What does it mean if an element has 8 electrons?

Answer 1

it has a full octet

Answer 2

Electrons form shells around the nucleus of the atoms. The second shell can hold up to eight electrons, and for atoms of atomic number less than twenty, where this is the outermost, it's a rule of thumb that these atoms combine to have eight electrons in this outer shell.

Answer 3

Eight electrons fills the number of free slots in each electron 'level' of the atom.

If an atom does not have eight electrons in it's current upper shell, it has eight minus that number valence electrons.

Answer 4

An element with 8 electrons typically refers to oxygen, which has 8 protons to balance the electrons in a neutral atom. In terms of electron configuration, this corresponds to a full outer shell, making the atom stable and less likely to form chemical bonds.

Answer 5

Atoms that have 8 electrons in their outermost energy level are nonreactive!

:)