Alloy vs. Steel — What's the Difference?

An alloy is an admixture of metals, or a metal combined with one or more other elements. For example, combining the metallic elements gold and copper produces red gold, gold and silver becomes white gold, and silver combined with copper produces sterling silver.

Steel is an alloy made up of iron with typically a few tenths of a percent of carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to iron. Many other elements may be present or added.

A metallic solid or liquid that is composed of a homogeneous mixture of two or more metals or of metals and nonmetal or metalloid elements, usually for the purpose of imparting or increasing specific characteristics or properties

A hard, strong grey or bluish-grey alloy of iron with carbon and usually other elements, used as a structural and fabricating material

A mixture; an amalgam

Mentally prepare (oneself) to do or face something difficult

The relative degree of mixture with a base metal; fineness.

A generally hard, strong, durable, malleable alloy of iron and carbon, usually containing between 0.2 and 1.5 percent carbon, often with other constituents such as manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, copper, tungsten, cobalt, or silicon, depending on the desired alloy properties, and widely used as a structural material.

Something added that lowers value or purity.

Something, such as a sword, that is made of steel.

To combine (metals) to form an alloy.

A quality suggestive of this alloy, especially a hard, unflinching character.

To combine; mix

Steel gray.

To debase by the addition of an inferior element.

Made with, relating to, or consisting of steel

A metal that is a combination of two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal.

Very firm or strong

(archaic) A metal of lesser value, mixed with a metal of greater value.

Of a steel gray.

An admixture; something added which stains, taints etc.

To cover, plate, edge, or point with steel.

(figurative) Fusion, marriage, combination.

To make hard, strong, or obdurate; strengthen

To mix or combine; often used of metals.

An artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.

To reduce the purity of by mixing with a less valuable substance.

(countable) Any item made of this metal, particularly including:

(figurative) To impair or debase by mixture.

Bladed or pointed weapons, as swords, javelins, daggers.

Any combination or compound of metals fused together; a mixture of metals; for example, brass, which is an alloy of copper and zinc. But when mercury is one of the metals, the compound is called an amalgam.

A piece used for striking sparks from flint.

The quality, or comparative purity, of gold or silver; fineness.

Armor.

A baser metal mixed with a finer.

A honing steel, a tool used to sharpen or hone metal blades.

Admixture of anything which lessens the value or detracts from; as, no happiness is without alloy.

(sewing) Pieces used to strengthen, support, or expand an item of clothing.

To reduce the purity of by mixing with a less valuable substance; as, to alloy gold with silver or copper, or silver with copper.

(dialectal) A flat iron.

To mix, as metals, so as to form a compound.

A sewing needle; a knitting needle; a sharp metal stylus.

To abate, impair, or debase by mixture; to allay; as, to alloy pleasure with misfortunes.

(printing) An engraving plate:

To form a metallic compound.

Projectiles.

A mixture containing two or more metallic elements or metallic and nonmetallic elements usually fused together or dissolving into each other when molten;

(sewing) A fringe of beads or decoration of this metal.

The state of impairing the quality or reducing the value of something

A type of slide used while playing the steel guitar.

Lower in value by increasing the base-metal content

Medicinal consumption of this metal; chalybeate medicine; (eventually) any iron or iron-treated water consumed as a medical treatment.

Make an alloy of

(countable) Varieties of this metal.

The gray hue of this metal; steel-gray, or steel blue.

(figurative) Extreme hardness or resilience.

Made of steel.

Similar to steel in color, strength, or the like; steely.

(business) Of or belonging to the manufacture or trade in steel.

Containing steel.

(printing) Engraved on steel.

(transitive) To edge, cover, or point with steel.

(transitive) To harden or strengthen; to nerve or make obdurate; to fortify against.

To back with steel.

To treat a liquid with steel for medicinal purposes.

To press with a flat iron.

To cause to resemble steel in appearance.

(transitive) To steelify; to turn iron into steel.

(transitive) To electroplate an item, particularly an engraving plate, with a layer of iron.

(transitive) To sharpen with a honing steel.

Coldbath Fields Prison in London, closed in 1877.

A variety of iron intermediate in composition and properties between wrought iron and cast iron (containing between one half of one per cent and one and a half per cent of carbon), and consisting of an alloy of iron with an iron carbide. Steel, unlike wrought iron, can be tempered, and retains magnetism. Its malleability decreases, and fusibility increases, with an increase in carbon.

An instrument or implement made of steel

A weapon, as a sword, dagger, etc.

Fig.: Anything of extreme hardness; that which is characterized by sternness or rigor.

An instrument of steel (usually a round rod) for sharpening knives.

A chalybeate medicine.

A piece of steel for striking sparks from flint.

To overlay, point, or edge with steel; as, to steel a razor; to steel an ax.

To make hard or strong; hence, to make insensible or obdurate.

To cause to resemble steel, as in smoothness, polish, or other qualities.

To cover, as an electrotype plate, with a thin layer of iron by electrolysis. The iron thus deposited is very hard, like steel.

An alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used in construction; mechanical properties can be varied over a wide range

A cutting or thrusting weapon with a long blade

Knife sharpener consisting of a ridged steel rod

Get ready for something difficult or unpleasant

Cover, plate, or edge with steel