The English word metal is derived from the Latin word metallum, in turn derived from the Greek metallon, meaning a mine or quarry, as well as ore or metal. Thus, the word originally meant anything useful dug up from the ground, including stone, sand, clay or rocks. This meaning survives in the term road metal.

• In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element that readily forms cations and bonds ionically.
• In road pavement metal is a type of pavement.
• In music, metal (Heavy Metal) is a genre of music.
• In astronomy, a metal is any element other than hydrogen or helium. This distinction is significant because hydrogen and helium (together with trace amounts of lithium) are the only elements that occur naturally without the fusion activity of stars. Thus, the metallicity of a galaxy or other object is an indication of past stellar activity.
• In Chinese Taoism, metal is one of the Five Elements.