Aluminium is the light silver-grey metal that does not rust. Drinks cans, kitchen foil, the frame of a stepladder, window frames, the shell of a laptop.
It is light and strong at once, which is why aeroplanes, bicycles and ladders are built from it. The spelling splits the world: Britain writes aluminium and says it in five beats, al-yoo-MIN-ee-um, while America writes aluminum and says a-LOO-mi-num. Both are right where they are used, and both name element 13, symbol Al. It is uncountable — a sheet of aluminium, a roll of aluminium foil, never an aluminium. It does not rust the way iron does, but it does grow a thin dull skin of oxide, and that skin is what keeps the metal underneath safe.
1nounaluminiumA light, soft, silver-grey metal that resists rust; chemical element 13, symbol Al.
“The ladder is aluminium, so one person can carry it.”
synonyms: aluminum
aluminium is a metal.
Also accepted in games: aluminum
Both names were born in 1812. Aluminum was coined first, and aluminium appeared in the same year as an alternative form, built from alūmen with the ending -ium. Britain settled on the longer spelling, America on the shorter, and the metal has answered to two names ever since.
From alūmen + -ium. First used in 1812 as an alternative form of aluminum which was coined in the same year. From alūmen + ium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA