Complete the statement.
Sodium hydroxide is ().

 - an elementary substance
 - a compound
You can tell whether sodium hydroxide is an elementary substance or a compound by counting the number of atomic symbols in its chemical formula. An atomic symbol consists of either one capital letter or a capital letter followed by one or two lowercase letters.
The chemical formula for sodium hydroxide, NaOH, contains three atomic symbols: Na for sodium, O for oxygen, and H for hydrogen. So, the formula tells you that sodium hydroxide is composed of three chemical elements bonded together.
Since sodium hydroxide is composed of multiple chemical elements bonded together, sodium hydroxide is a compound.