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A metal (from the Greek word métallon, “mine, quarry, metal”) is a lustrous substance that transmits electricity and heat reasonably efficiently when newly produced, polished or shattered. Metals are either malleable or ductile (they may be hammered into thin sheets) (can be drawn into wires). Metals can be chemical elements like iron, alloys like stainless steel, or molecular compounds like polymeric sulfur nitride.

In physics, a metal is defined as any material capable of conducting electricity at absolute zero temperature. Under high pressures, several elements and compounds that aren’t typically classed as metals become metallic. At pressures ranging from 40 to 170 thousand times atmospheric pressure, nonmetal iodine, for example, progressively transforms into a metal. In the same way, certain metals can degrade into nonmetals. At slightly under two million times atmospheric pressure, sodium, for example, becomes a nonmetal.

Metals make up around 95 of the 118 elements in the periodic table (or are likely to be such). Due to their chemistry, two elements that would typically qualify as brittle metals (in physics)—arsenic and antimony—are frequently referred to as metalloids in chemistry (predominantly non-metallic for arsenic and balanced between metallicity and nonmetallicity for antimony). Due to a lack of widely agreed definitions of the categories involved, the borders between metals, nonmetals, and metalloids change slightly, making the number inexact.

The word “metal” is used more broadly in astrophysics to refer to any chemical elements in a heavier star than helium, rather than simply conventional metals. In this sense, the first four “metals” that accumulate in star cores through nucleosynthesis are carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and neon, all chemically nonmetals. Throughout its existence, a star fuses lighter elements, primarily hydrogen and helium, into heavier atoms. An astronomical object’s metallicity refers to the proportion of its mass made up of heavier chemical elements in this context.

Metals, as chemical elements, makeup 25% of the Earth’s crust and are used in almost every area of contemporary life. Because of the strength and durability of various metals, they are commonly used in high-rise and bridge construction and most cars, home appliances, tools, pipes, and train tracks. Coinage metals used to be limited to precious metals, but coinage metals have expanded to include at least 23 chemical elements in the contemporary period.

Copper is considered to have started the history of refined metals around 11,000 years ago. Before the first recorded occurrence of bronze in the 5th millennium BCE, gold, silver, iron (as meteoric iron), lead, and brass were also in use. The manufacture of early types of steel, the discovery of sodium—the first light metal—in 1809, the advent of contemporary alloy steels, and, after the conclusion of World War II, the development of increasingly sophisticated alloys are all examples of subsequent advancements.