basic iron

1. 1.

   pig iron containing a high percentage of phosphorus; used in making steel by a process that removes the phosphorus

   Broaderpig iron

Questions about basic iron

What does basic iron mean?

basic iron means "pig iron containing a high percentage of phosphorus; used in making steel by a process that removes the phosphorus".

Is basic iron a common word?

basic iron 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.