tin

UK/tɪn/US/tɪn/

nounB14 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,694 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: tins

Tin is a soft, silvery metal — and in Britain it is also the sealed can lined with it: a tin of beans, a tin of tuna, a tin of soup kept on the shelf for a bad day.

The metal came first. Mixed with copper it makes bronze, and thin sheets of it once lined food cans, which is where the container sense grew from. British and American English part company here: a tin of tomatoes in London is a can of tomatoes in Chicago, and tinned food is canned food. A tin is also a lidded metal box with no seal — the biscuit tin, the tin the sewing things live in — and in a British kitchen a baking mould as well: a cake tin, a roasting tin. Does exactly what it says on the tin is the British phrase for something that lives up to its plain description.

tin — Alchemist-hp (talk) (www.pse-mendelejew.de) · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Definitions of tin

1nounsoftA soft silvery-white metal, used in bronze and for coating other metals.B1~94%
“The alloy is mostly copper with a little tin in it.”
2nountinA sealed metal container of food, in British English.B1~2%
“Open a tin of tomatoes and let it bubble for ten minutes.”
- Said"Open a tin of tomatoes for me; the fresh ones are useless in winter."
- WrittenTins lined the shelf in the cellar, their labels faded to guesses.
- UsedCheck the tin for dents before you buy; a dented seam can leak.
- ContrastA tin, not a jar. A jar is glass and screws shut again; a tin is metal and opens once. jar →
- Not thisThe same thing across the ocean is a can. Here it is a tin.
- SimplyThe beans are in a tin. Take the lid off.
Patterna tin of + noun (beans, tomatoes, tuna) · open a tin · tinned + noun · tin opener
synonyms: can
3nouncontainerA metal box with a lid, for keeping things in.B1~2%
“The photographs were in a biscuit tin under the bed.”
4nountrayA metal container or tray for baking in, in British English.B1~2%
“Grease the tin before you pour the batter in.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 13 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Also accepted in games: can

Remember it

TIN → the can named after its metal

The metal came first: the first tins were steel cans coated with a thin skin of tin, and the name stayed on the can.

Phrases it lives in

does what it says on the tin — is exactly what its plain description promises

Also practised as

Where it comes from

Tin is one of the oldest words in the language and one of the least changed: Old English tin, from Proto-West Germanic *tin, from Proto-Germanic *tiną. A thousand years of English have gone by and the spelling has not moved a letter.

Proto-Germanic
*tiną
Proto-West Germanic
*tin
Old English
tin
Middle English
tin
English, today
tin

From Middle English tin, from Old English tin, from Proto-West Germanic tin, from Proto-Germanic tiną.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

tin in the wild

When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the so-called "tin cry", as a result of twinning in tin crystals.
Tin
The tin whistle, also known as the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument.
Tin whistle
A tin whistle player is called a whistler.
Tin whistle
Steel cans were traditionally made of tinplate; the tin coating stopped the contents from rusting the steel.
Steel and tin cans
Modern cans are often made from steel lined with transparent films made from assorted plastics, instead of tin.
Steel and tin cans

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of tin

1nounsoftA soft silvery-white metal, used in bronze and for coating other metals.B1~94%

“The alloy is mostly copper with a little tin in it.”

2nountinA sealed metal container of food, in British English.B1~2%

“Open a tin of tomatoes and let it bubble for ten minutes.”

Said"Open a tin of tomatoes for me; the fresh ones are useless in winter."
WrittenTins lined the shelf in the cellar, their labels faded to guesses.
UsedCheck the tin for dents before you buy; a dented seam can leak.
ContrastA tin, not a jar. A jar is glass and screws shut again; a tin is metal and opens once. jar →
Not thisThe same thing across the ocean is a can. Here it is a tin.
SimplyThe beans are in a tin. Take the lid off.

Patterna tin of + noun (beans, tomatoes, tuna) · open a tin · tinned + noun · tin opener

synonyms: can

3nouncontainerA metal box with a lid, for keeping things in.B1~2%

“The photographs were in a biscuit tin under the bed.”

4nountrayA metal container or tray for baking in, in British English.B1~2%

“Grease the tin before you pour the batter in.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 13 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Also accepted in games: can