Medal or metal?
medal is a noun meaning “A stamped metal disc used as a personal ornament, a charm, or a religious object”; metal is a noun meaning “Any of a number of chemical elements in the periodic table that form a metallic…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) metal is about 2.7 times as common as medal.
What is the difference between medal and metal?
| medal | metal | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, adjective, verb |
| Meaning | A stamped metal disc used as a personal ornament, a charm, or a religious object A stamped or cast metal object (usually a disc), particularly one awarded as a prize or reward colloquialTo win a medal | Any of a number of chemical elements in the periodic table that form a metallic bond with other metal atoms; generally shiny, somewhat malleable and hard… Any material with similar physical properties as those chemical elements, especially as a combination of several of them, such as an alloy Characterized by strong drum-beats and distorted guitars |
| Example | Whether their images, shrines, relics, consecrated things, holy water, medals, benedictions, those divine amulets, holy exorcisms, and the… | none recorded |
| Forms | medals | metals |
| Pronunciation | /ˈmɛdəl/ [ˈmɛd.ɫ̩] [ˈmɛɾ.ɫ̩] | /ˈmɛ.təl/ |
| In writing | 25 times per million words | 66 times per million words |
Sources: medal and metal in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of medal and metal
medal
- 1
A stamped metal disc used as a personal ornament, a charm, or a religious object
Whether their images, shrines, relics, consecrated things, holy water, medals, benedictions, those divine amulets, holy exorcisms, and the sign of the cross, be available in this…
- 2
colloquialTo win a medal
He medalled twice at the Olympics
- 3
A stamped or cast metal object (usually a disc), particularly one awarded as a prize or reward
- 4
To award a medal to
metal
- 1
Any of a number of chemical elements in the periodic table that form a metallic bond with other metal atoms; generally shiny, somewhat malleable and hard, often a conductor of heat and electricity
- 2
Characterized by strong drum-beats and distorted guitars
- 3
To make a road using crushed rock, stones etc
- 4
Any material with similar physical properties as those chemical elements, especially as a combination of several of them, such as an alloy
- 5
Having the emotional or social characteristics associated with metal music; brash, bold, frank, unyielding, etc
- 6
An element which was not directly created after the Big Bang but instead formed through nuclear reactions; any element other than hydrogen and helium
- 7
Crushed rock, stones etc. used to make a road
- 8
The ore from which a metal is derived
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, medal or metal?
medal appears 25 times per million words; metal 66 times per million words.
medal 25 times per million wordsmetal 66 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search medal vs metal?
“medal vs metal” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 40 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“metal vs medal”, “medal or metal”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.