tin
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
A malleable, ductile, metallic element, resistant to corrosion, with atomic number 50 and symbol Sn.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tinIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
uncountable
A malleable, ductile, metallic element, resistant to corrosion, with atomic number 50 and symbol Sn.
metonymic
Iron or steel sheet metal that is coated with tin as an anticorrosion protectant.
Airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc.
A vessel (box, can, pan, etc.) made of tinplate and used mainly in baking
chiefly ukcommonwealthcountable
An airtight container, made of tin-coated steel (called tinplate or tin), (formerly) tin, aluminium, or another metal, used to preserve food, or hold a liquid or some other product.
A silvery malleable metallic element that resists corrosion; used in many alloys and to coat other metals to prevent corrosion; obtained chiefly from cassiterite where it occurs as tin oxide
verb
Preserve in a can or tin
“Tinned foods are not very tasty.”
Plate with tin
transitive
To cover with tin.
Prepare (a metal) for soldering or brazing by applying a thin layer of solder to the surface
To coat with solder, in preparation for soldering, to ensure a good solder joint
To coat with solder, in order to consolidate braided wire, so as to make contact with all strands and reduce fragility of the fraying wire
adjective
Made of tin.
Made of galvanised iron or built of corrugated iron.
Made of aluminum.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A malleable, ductile, metallic element, resistant to corrosion, with atomic number 50 and symbol Sn.
Used this way, tin is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.