wolfram | Definition of wolfram in English by Oxford Dictionaries

noun

• Tungsten or its ore, especially as a commercial commodity.

  • ‘But instead of going to London she married Frank King and moved to remote Hatches Creek, a wolfram mining town 400 kilometres north of Alice Springs.’
  • ‘Stobart cites from the 19th century a host of ketchups including oyster, mussel, Windermere (mushrooms and horseradish), wolfram (beer, anchovies, mushrooms), and pontac (elderberries).’
  • ‘The base is made from the stone remains of a defunct wolfram mine and its wharf.’
  • ‘High-grade iron ore and copper was imported from Sweden; iron ore from Poland, Austria, and Spain; wolfram from Portugal and Spain; and chromium from Turkey.’
  • ‘It's then balanced with heavy inserts of wolfram (the principle ore in tungsten) on both the heel and toe.’
  • ‘Karens also make their living by fishing in coastal areas, working in tin or wolfram mines, and gathering forest products like rattan and honey.’
  • ‘In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan the mining of wolfram, vanadium, and molybdenum had to be increased to compensate for the loss of sites in German-occupied territory.’
  • ‘By 1907 most of the gold mining was replaced by tin and wolfram.’
  • ‘The same year Lodygin's electric lamps were illuminating a St Petersburg shop and he went on to patent the wolfram filament lamp.’

Origin

Mid 18th century: from German, assumed to be a miners' term, perhaps from Wolf ‘wolf’ + Middle High German rām ‘soot’, probably originally a pejorative term referring to the ore's inferiority to tin, with which it occurred.

Pronunciation