type metal

1. 1.

   an alloy of tin and lead and antimony used to make printing type

   Broaderalloy

   Narrowertype slug

Questions about type metal

What does type metal mean?

type metal means "an alloy of tin and lead and antimony used to make printing type".

Is type metal a common word?

type 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.