Alloy

How to spell alloy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce alloy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does alloy mean?

1. nounA metal made by combining two or more metallic elements, or a metal with a non-metal, to improve its properties.
2. verbTo combine one metal with another, or to mix something so as to alter or reduce its purity.

Alloy in a sentence

• noun

  The engineers chose a lightweight alloy for the bicycle frame.

• verb

  Foundries routinely alloy iron with carbon to make steel.

• noun

  Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc.

• verb

  Manufacturers often alloy gold with copper to make it harder.

Where does alloy come from?

Language of origin: French

The word travelled into English from the Old French aloi, which described the quality or fineness of a coin's metal, and the related verb aloier, meaning 'to combine' or 'to mix'. Behind the French sits the Latin alligare, 'to bind to' or 'to bind together', formed from ad- ('to') and ligare ('to bind'); that same ligare gives us 'ligament' and 'oblige'. In medieval coinage an aloi referred to the proportion of base metal bound into gold or silver, so the earliest English uses carried a faint sense of dilution or debasement. The spelling wobbled for centuries between forms like 'allay' and 'aloy' before settling on 'alloy', with the doubled l reflecting the Latin ad- prefix assimilating into the root. The modern neutral meaning, a deliberate and useful blend of metals such as bronze or steel, only firmed up around the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

How the word is built

• al- (from Latin ad-: to)
• loy (from ligare: to bind), a binding-together of metals