Which statement best describes covalent bonding?

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Covalent bonding is about sharing electrons to complete the outer electron shells of the atoms involved. When two nonmetals approach, they often share a pair of electrons so that each atom can count those electrons toward its octet. This sharing creates a stable bond between the atoms, and the bond can be a single, double, or triple bond depending on how many electron pairs are shared. The idea here is not that electrons are fully transferred to one atom or another; instead, the electrons are shared to satisfy the octet rule.

This is why the option describing electrons being transferred to form ions fits ionic bonding rather than covalent bonding, and why the option about melting lattice structures doesn’t define covalent bonds.