WordNet
n. any of several chemical elements that are usually shiny solids that conduct heat or electricity and can be formed into sheets etc. [syn: metal]
Usage examples of "metallic element".
All we can guess at the moment is that a metallic element somehow got mixed with synthetic compounds or chemical by-products that were dumped in the Niger River.
The original discovery, in 1896, was that the otherwise unremarkable metallic element uranium gave off strange radiations.
It seemed impossible to come to any other conclusion but that the land before them, continent or island, had been upheaved by subterranean forces above the surface of the sea, and that it was mainly composed of the same metallic element as had characterized the dust so frequently uplifted from the bottom.
Rather, realistically, the conflict was fought over a soft crystalline metallic element called tin.