Power Thesaurus 1969, governess thesaurus, Power Thesaurus, viewed 2 September, 2017, <http://www.powerthesaurus.org/governess/synonyms>.
The noble gases have weak interatomic force, and consequently have very low melting and boiling points. They are all monatomic gases under standard conditions, including the elements with larger atomic masses than many normally solid elements.
The noble gases are the only non-transition-metal elements that have eight valence electrons in their neutral, ground state configuration, but atoms of other elements can produce a full octet -- an outer shell with eight electrons -- by gaining or losing electrons.