Chemistry Nomenclature Practice Test 2026 - Free Chemistry Practice Questions and Study Guide

The systematic name for the compound ZnS is Zinc sulfide. This name accurately represents the components of the compound, where "Zn" stands for zinc and "S" denotes sulfide. In this binary compound, zinc is a metal that can form a +2 charge, while sulfide corresponds to the sulfide ion, which carries a -2 charge.

In naming binary ionic compounds, it is standard practice to name the metal first followed by the non-metal with its ending changed to "-ide." Therefore, "zinc" is used as the name of the metal cation, and "sulfide" as the name of the anion formed from sulfur.

It's important to note that the other choices contain either misspellings or incorrect nomenclature conventions, which lead to their exclusion as systematic names for ZnS.