DictionaryRoot: ad-
Latin

ad-

to, toward; addition; sometimes emphasis

Forms

  • ad-
  • ac- — Used before c in Latin.
  • af- — Used before f in Latin.
  • ag- — Used before g in Latin.
  • al- — Used before l in Latin.
  • ap- — Used before p in Latin.
  • ar- — Used before r in Latin.
  • as- — Used before s in Latin.
  • at- — Used before t in Latin.

Origin

Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European *ad, ‘to; near.’

Note

Later Latin-based spellings sometimes restored consonants that had disappeared in French.

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noun / verb

alloy

AL-oy/ˈælɔɪ/

A mixture of a metal with one or more other elements.

Combining copper and tin produces bronze, an alloy cast into an ingot.

A compact, object-only material sequence shows copper and tin combined in a crucible and cast as one bronze ingot.
Etymology

Binding things together is the underlying image: metals are joined into a mixture. The noun first concerned a noble metal’s purity, then expanded to mixtures without implying that one metal was inferior.

In context

PowerfulJRE108:00
26 alternating layers, 1 to 4 microns dark bismuth with a hundred to two hundred microns of silver magnesium zinc alloy.
Joe Rogan Experience #2479 - Bob Lazar & Luigi Vendittelli

More examples

  • Bronze is an alloy containing copper and tin.
  • Engineers alloy metals to obtain useful combinations of properties.
  • The furnace is used for alloying several metals.

Forms

alloy · alloys · alloyed · alloying

Similar words

metal
Can be an unmixed element rather than a blended material.
mixture
Broader; does not imply that a component is metal.