METALLOID

(a) Element intermediate in lustre and conductivity between the true metals and non-metals. Arsenic, antimony, boron, tellurium, and selenium, etc., are generally considered metalloids; frequently one allotropic modification off an element will be non-metallic, another metalloid in character. Obviously, no hard and fast line can be drawn. (b) In steel metallurgy, metalloid in has a specialized, even of erroneous, meaning; is covers elements commonly present in simple steel; carbon, manganese, phosphorus, silicon and sulfur.