metal

1. Abbr. M Any of a category of electropositive elements that usually have a shiny surface, are generally good conductors of heat and electricity, and can be melted or fused, hammered into thin sheets, or drawn into wires. Typical metals form salts with nonmetals, basic oxides with oxygen, and alloys with one another.

2. An alloy of two or more metallic elements.

3. An object made of metal.

4. Basic character; mettle.

5. Broken stones used for road surfaces or railroad beds.

6. Molten glass, especially when used in glassmaking.

7. Molten cast iron.

8. Printing Type made of metal.

9. Music Heavy metal.

Word History: In modern English, metal and mettle are pronounced the same, and they are in fact all related. Middle English borrowed metal from Old French in the 14th century; Old French metal, metail, came from Latin metallum, from Greek metallon, "mine, quarry, ore, metal." By the 16th century, metal had also come to mean "the stuff one is made of, one's character," but there was no difference in spelling between the literal and figurative senses until about 1700, when the spelling mettle, originally just a variant of metal, was fixed for the sense "fortitude." The history of English has numerous examples of pairs of words, like metal and mettle, that are (historically speaking) spelling variants of the same word; two other such pairs are trump/triumph and through/thorough.

1. Any of a large group of chemical elements, including iron, gold, copper, lead, and magnesium, that readily become cations and form ionic bonds, having relatively free valence electrons (electrons in the outer shells). Metals are generally good conductors of electricity because of the freedom of their valence electrons. Metals generally conduct heat well, and in solid form are relatively malleable and ductile compared to other solids. They are usually shiny and opaque. All metals except mercury are solid at room temperature.

2. An alloy, such as steel or bronze, made of two or more metals.

3. In astronomy, any atom except hydrogen and helium.

4. Small stones or gravel, mixed with tar to form tarmac for the surfacing of roads.

Our Living Language  : Most metallic elements are lustrous or colorful solids that are good conductors of heat and electricity, and readily form ionic bonds with other elements. Many of their properties are due to the fact that their outermost electrons, called valence electrons, are not tightly bound to the nucleus. For instance, most metals form ionic bonds easily because they readily give up valence electrons to other atoms, thereby becoming positive ions (cations). The electrical conductivity of metals also stems from the relative freedom of valence electrons. In a substance composed of metals, the atoms are in a virtual "sea" of valence electrons that readily jump from atom to atom in the presence of an electric potential, creating electric current. With the exception of hydrogen, which behaves like a metal only at very high pressures, the elements that appear in the left-hand column of the Periodic Table are called alkali metals. Alkali metals, such as sodium and potassium, have only one electron in their outermost shell, and are chemically very reactive. (Hydrogen is exceptional in that, although it is highly reactive, its other metallic properties are manifest only at very high pressures.) Metals farther toward the right side of the Periodic Table, such as tin and lead, have more electrons in their outermost shell, and are not as reactive. The somewhat reactive elements that fall between the two extremes are the transition elements, such as iron, copper, tungsten, and silver. In most atoms, inner electron shells must be maximally occupied by electrons before an outer shell will accept electrons, but many transition elements have electron gaps in the shell just inside the valence shell. This configuration leads to a wide variety of available energy levels for electrons to move about in, so in the presence of electromagnetic radiation such as light, a variety of frequencies are readily emitted or absorbed. Thus transition metals tend to be very colorful, and each contributes different colors to different compounds.