base metal

1. 1.

   a metal that is common and not considered precious

   “lead, iron, copper, tin, and zinc are base metals”

   Broadermetallic element

Questions about base metal

What does base metal mean?

base metal means "a metal that is common and not considered precious".

Is base metal a common word?

base metal is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.