ingot
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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ingots,
present (3rd person singular)
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ingoted,
past participle, past
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ingoting
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ingotsimple
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ingotssimple
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have ingotedperfect
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has ingotedperfect
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am ingotingprogressive
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are ingotingprogressive
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is ingotingprogressive
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have been ingotingperfect progressive
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has been ingotingperfect progressive
Past
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ingotedsimple
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had ingotedperfect
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was ingotingprogressive
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were ingotingprogressive
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had been ingotingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ingot
1350–1400; Middle English: literally, (something) poured in, equivalent to in- in- 1 + got ( e ) a stream, Old English *gota, akin to gēotan to flow; cognate with German giessen, Gothic giutan, Old Norse gjōta to pour
Explanation
A processed piece of fine metal is an ingot. If you find a buried treasure chest, cross your fingers that it's full of gold ingots! When ingot was originally used in the 1500s, it meant "mold in which metal is cast." To make an ingot, metal is melted and poured into such a mold, where it hardens into a bar. Ingots are used to make metal easy to transport, store, and measure — and sometimes to be directly traded for money, particularly in the case of gold.
Vocabulary lists containing ingot
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Gold Rush: Mining and Metals
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The Joy Luck Club
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
At first, archaeologists from the University of Gothenburg assumed the Särdal ingot belonged to the Bronze Age.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 23, 2025
A thin wire is dipped into the mix and rotated for about three days, forming a polysilicon cylinder known as an ingot.
From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2025
The presence of a usable ingot seemed unlikely, and if true, downright alchemic.
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2024
Each ingot may take several days to grow and could weigh up to 100kg.
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2023
The technique used to do this involved drawing out the wire from an ingot of silver, with gold around the circumference.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
The International Energy Agency estimates that China’s global share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels—including polysilicon, ingots, wafers, cells, and modules—exceeds 80%.
From Barron's ● Apr. 15, 2026
The ingots date back almost 2,000 years to AD87, based on lettering written on the objects, which refers to the Emperor Domitian, who was known for his empire building, including expansion in Britain.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
The quarter-mile long facility begins with a digital-era Stonehenge: a room of 35-foot tall machines that grow torpedo-shaped silicon ingots weighing hundreds of pounds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
The ingots are cut into wafers, polished and placed into special shipping containers that will carry them throughout the chip supply chain so their delicate properties aren’t ruined.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
But José Arcadio Buendía at that time did not believe in the honesty of gypsies, so he traded his mule and a pair of goats for the two magnetized ingots.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
