tungsten

noun tung·sten \ ˈtəŋ-stən \

|Updated on: 24 Jun 2018

Definition of tungsten

: a gray-white heavy high-melting ductile hard polyvalent metallic element that resembles chromium and molybdenum in many of its properties and is used especially in carbide materials and electrical components (such as lamp filaments) and in hardening alloys (such as steel) — see Chemical Elements Table

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Recent Examples of tungsten from the Web

With Jaguar’s cannon another option is the A3B-T, Anti-Aerial Airburst-Tracer, that unleashes 200 tungsten pellets.

— allison barrie, Fox News, "Formidable 'Jaguar' recon vehicle revealed, touts powerful cannon and anti-tank missiles," 18 June 2018
Yes, things like that, or conflict minerals disclosure [which required companies to tell investors whether their products contained tantalum, tin, gold, or tungsten mined from the Democratic Republic of Congo].

— emily stewart, Vox, "The first woman president of the NYSE would really rather not talk about her gender," 14 June 2018
As border guards looked the other way, workers used carts to pull the cargo of metal ore — tungsten, lead, zinc, copper and gold concentrates, all banned from export under United Nations sanctions — across the frozen river.

— New York Times, "Sanctions Are Hurting North Korea. Can They Make Kim Give In?," 20 Apr. 2018
EcoKarat sells and repairs silver, gold, stainless steel, titanium and tungsten jewelry, like watches, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings.

— caitlin mullen, chicagotribune.com, "Back in business: EcoKarat jewelry shop returns to the Downtown Oak Park business district," 30 May 2018
Inside its cylinder is a spring-loaded tungsten block that will hammer thousands of times to slowly drive the mole to a depth of 3 meters, or about 10 feet.

— emily lakdawalla, Popular Mechanics, "Meet InSight: The Mission To Measure Marsquakes and Unlock the Red Planet," 30 Apr. 2018
After the craft touches down in late November, its robotic arm will deploy the volleyball-size seismometer and a heat probe, driving a rod 5 meters into the surface with thousands of strokes of a tungsten hammer.

— paul voosen, Science | AAAS, "By listening for quakes on Mars, NASA lander will probe Red Planet’s interior," 18 Apr. 2018
Harry Daghlian, another physicist at Los Alamos, had attempted a similar experiment the previous year using tungsten-carbide bricks instead of a beryllium dome.

— julian g. west, The Atlantic, "The Atomic-Bomb Core That Escaped World War II," 2 Apr. 2018
The springs that lofted the truck so high had the compressibility of tungsten.

— Car and Driver, "The Battle of the Off-Road Beaters: Ford F-150 Custom vs. Geo Tracker, Jeep Cherokee, Land Rover Discovery," 30 Nov. 2016

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tungsten.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of tungsten

Swedish, from tung heavy + sten stone

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First Known Use: 1796

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TUNGSTEN Defined for English Language Learners

tungsten

noun

Definition of tungsten for English Language Learners

: a hard metal that is used to make the thin wire in light bulbs and to harden other metals (such as steel)

TUNGSTEN Defined for Kids

tungsten

noun tung·sten \ ˈtəŋ-stən \

Definition of tungsten for Students

: a grayish white hard metallic chemical element used especially for electrical parts (as for the fine wire in an electric light bulb) and to make alloys (as steel) harder

Medical Dictionary

tungsten

noun tung·sten \ ˈtəŋ-stən \

medical Definition of tungsten

: a gray-white heavy high-melting ductile hard polyvalent metallic element that resembles chromium and molybdenum in many of its properties and is used especially for electrical purposes and in hardening alloys (as steel) —symbol W — called also wolfram; see Chemical Elements Table