Fluoride, nature's smallest anion, is capable of covalently coordinating to eight silicon atoms. The setting is a simple and common motif in zeolite chemistry: the box-shaped silicate double-four-ring (D4R). Fluoride seeks its center. It is the strain of box deformation that keeps fluoride in the middle of the box, and freezes what would be a transition state in its absence. Hypervalent bonding ensues. Fluoride's compactness works to its advantage in stabilizing the cage; chloride, bromide, and iodide do not bring about stabilization due to greater steric repulsion with the box frame. The combination of strain and hypervalent bonding, and the way they work in concert to yield this unusual case of multiple hypervalence, has potential for extension to a broader range of solidstate compounds.hat is the maximum number of atoms to which a maingroup element may bond? Four, one would normally think. But, hypervalence and delocalized bonding enlarge the upper range--no one bats an eyelid at silicon binding 6 ligands, and there exist cases of arguably 10-coordinate Si (1, 2). Much thinking on high coordination focuses on atomic or ionic radii, and packing considerations. Or, one can approach the problem from a quantum-chemical perspective. In this paper, we follow the latter course, and operate at the crossing point between molecular and extended systems. We explore how the upper bound for coordination number is determined by attractive and repulsive forces, adding in a factor of strain, associated with deforming a molecular cage that entraps an element in its center.The stage for this work is set by a simple and common motif in catalysis and separation: the silicate double-four-ring (D4R), one of the archetypal building blocks in large-pore zeolites. By use of relativistic density-functional theory (DFT) calculations and Kohn-Sham molecular orbital theory (3-6), we will see that within this box-like environment, fluoride coordinates, actually binds, to eight silicon atoms.