metalloid

See also: Metalloid

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek μέτᾰλλον (métăllon)der.

Latin metallum

Old French metalbor.

Middle English metal

English metal

Ancient Greek -ο- (-o-)der.

Latin -o-

Proto-Indo-European *weyd-

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *wéydos

Proto-Hellenic *wéidos

Ancient Greek εἶδος (eîdos)

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *-ēs

Ancient Greek -ης (-ēs)

Ancient Greek -ειδής (-eidḗs)

Latin -oīdēslbor.

English -oid

English metalloid

From metal + -oid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛtəlɔɪd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

metalloid (plural metalloids)

1. (chemistry) An element, such as silicon or germanium, intermediate in properties between that of a metal and a nonmetal; especially an elemental semiconductor.
2. (chemistry, obsolete) The metallic base of a fixed alkali, or alkaline earth; applied to sodium, potassium, and some other metallic substances whose metallic character was supposed to be not well defined.
   • 1836, Sir Humphry Davy, Memoirs:

     By some they [metals of the alkalies] were called metalloids; by some their simple nature was objected to

3. (chemistry, obsolete) A nonmetal.

Translations

element

• Bulgarian: металоид m (metaloid), неметал m (nemetal)
• Catalan: metal·loide m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 類金屬 / 类金属 (zh) (lèijīnshǔ), 半金屬 / 半金属 (zh) (bànjīnshǔ)

• Esperanto: metaloido (eo)
• Estonian: poolmetall
• Finnish: puolimetalli (fi)
• French: métalloïde (fr) m
• German: Halbmetall (de) n, Metalloid (de) n
• Hungarian: félfém (hu)
• Icelandic: málmleysingi (is) m, hálfmálmur m, málmbróðir m
• Irish: miotalóideach m
• Italian: metalloide (it) m, semimetallo (it) m
• Latvian: pusmetāls m
• Māori: haukonu
• Persian: شبه‌فلز (šebh-e-felez)
• Polish: półmetal (pl) m, metaloid (pl) m
• Portuguese: metaloide (pt)
• Romanian: metaloid (ro) m
• Russian: металло́ид (ru) m (metallóid)
• Serbo-Croatian: polumetal m
• Spanish: semimetal m, metaloide m
• Swedish: halvmetall (sv) c
• Tagalog: malametal
• Vietnamese: á kim (vi)

Adjective

metalloid (comparative more metalloid, superlative most metalloid)

1. (not comparable) Of or relating to the metalloids.
2. (informal) Characteristic of the metal music genre.
   • 1997, CMJ New Music Monthly, number 43, page 12:

     Graham Massey of 808 State turns a Björkian moan into a vibrating siren and powers his strangely metalloid version of "Army Of Me" with it; the Brodsky String Quartet turns "Hyperballad" into a stately 3-D chess game.

   • 2004, Gene Santoro, Highway 61 Revisited:

     It expanded from bleary delay rippling with looped phrases to embrace molten metalloid raunch and blues grit, acoustic guitars and pedal steels.