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steel

Pronunciation: /stiːl/

The English word “steel” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. An artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.
  2. Bladed or pointed weapons, as swords, javelins, daggers.
  3. A piece used for striking sparks from flint or ferrocerium.
  4. Armor.
  5. A honing steel, a tool used to sharpen or hone metal blades.
  6. Pieces used to strengthen, support, or expand an item of clothing.
  7. A flat iron.
  8. A sewing needle; a knitting needle; a sharp metal stylus.
  9. An engraving plate.
  10. Projectiles.
  11. A fringe of beads or decoration of this metal.
  12. A type of slide used while playing the steel guitar.
  13. Medicinal consumption of this metal; chalybeate medicine; (eventually) any iron or iron-treated water consumed as a medical treatment.
  14. The gray hue of this metal; steel-gray, or steel blue.
  15. Extreme hardness or resilience.

adjective

  1. Made of steel.
  2. Similar to steel in color, strength, or the like; steely.
  3. Of or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel.
  4. Containing steel.
  5. Engraved on steel.

Etymology

From Middle English stele, stel, from Old English stīele, from Proto-West Germanic *stahlī (“something made of steel”), enlargement of *stahl (“steel”), from Proto-Germanic *stahlą, from *stah- or *stag- (“to be firm, rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *stak- (“to stay, to be firm”). Compare Scots stele, Yola stehli, German Stahl, Dutch staal, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.