Metallic

How to spell metallic

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce metallic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does metallic mean?

1. adjectiveMade of metal, or having a quality such as the shine, sound, or taste associated with metal.

Metallic in a sentence

• The car was painted a deep metallic blue that shimmered in the sun.

• She noticed a faint metallic taste in the tap water after the pipes were replaced.

Where does metallic come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adjective comes from the Latin metallicus, meaning 'of or relating to metal or to mines', which was itself built on the noun metallum, the Latin word for metal as well as for a mine where ore was dug. The Romans had borrowed metallum from the Greek metallon, which originally meant a pit, quarry, or mine, and only later came to mean the ore or metal extracted from it. English took the word over in the sixteenth century, partly through French metallique, to describe anything having the qualities of metal, such as its shine, its hardness, or its ringing sound. The double 'l' that trips up some writers is a faithful echo of the Latin metallum, where the two 'l' letters already stood side by side. The same root still lies inside the everyday words metal, metallurgy, and even the chemical term metalloid.

How the word is built

• metall- (from Latin metallum: metal, mine)
• -ic (adjective suffix)