cobalt

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a hard ferromagnetic silver-white bivalent or trivalent metallic element; a trace element in plant and animal nutrition

Etymology

From German Kobalt, formerly also Kobald, ‑olt, ‑old, ‑elt, ‑el, apparently the same word as Kobold (“goblin”), from Middle High German, which became also a Harz Mountains silver miners’ term for rock laced with arsenic and sulfur, so called because it degraded the ore and made the miners ill. Doublet of kobold.

In classic literature

Synonyms

Co, atomic number 27

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