Which element has the greatest electronegativity? fluorine chlorine bromine iodine

Option (a) is the correct answer.

Explanation:

It is known that for non-metals, on moving down a group there will be decrease in electronegativity of elements.

Smaller is the size of a non-metal, more easily an electron will be attracted by its nucleus. Whereas larger is the size of element more is the number of electrons present in the atom.

Hence, more will be the number of shells and attraction between the nucleus and outermost electrons will decrease. As a result, an electron will not easily get attracted by a larger atom.

Thus we can conclude that fluorine is the element that has the greatest electronegativity.