precious metal

noun

"precious-metal" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“precious metal” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A rare metallic chemical element of high economic value, such as gold, platinum, palladium, or rhodium.

Key facts for precious metal
PropertyValue
Headwordprecious metal
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “precious metal” sits in English frequency

precious metal falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

precious metal is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A rare metallic chemical element of high economic value, such as gold, platinum, palladium, or rhodium.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for precious metal, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is precious metal, spelled P-R-E-C-I-O-U-S- -M-E-T-A-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    A rare metallic chemical element of high economic value, such as gold, platinum, palladium, or rhodium.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "precious metal"?
"precious metal" is spelled P-R-E-C-I-O-U-S- -M-E-T-A-L.
What does "precious metal" mean?
As a noun, "precious metal" means: A rare metallic chemical element of high economic value, such as gold, platinum, palladium, or rhodium.
What language does "precious metal" come from?
"precious metal" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “precious metal”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is P-R-E-C-I-O-U-S- -M-E-T-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list