तत्वों की संयोजन शक्ति को संयोजकता (Valency) का नाम दिया गया है। संयोजकता का यथार्थ ज्ञान ही समस्त रसायन शास्त्र की नींव है। पिछले वर्षो में द्रव्यों के स्वभाव तथा गुणों का अधिक ज्ञान होने के साथ साथ संयोजकता के ज्ञान में भी वृद्धि हुई है।

In chemistry, the valence or valency of an atom is a measure of its combining capacity with other atoms when it forms chemical compounds or molecules. Valence is generally understood to be the number of chemical bonds that each atom of a given chemical element typically forms. Double bonds are considered to be two bonds, triple bonds to be three, quadruple bonds to be four, quintuple bonds to be five and sextuple bonds to be six. In most compounds, the valence of hydrogen is 1, of oxygen is 2, of nitrogen is 3, and of carbon is 4. Valence is not to be confused with the related concepts of the coordination number, the oxidation state, or the number of valence electrons for a given atom.