金属 (jīn shǔ) is a noun meaning 'metal' — the class of chemical elements that are typically hard, shiny, malleable, and good conductors of heat and electricity (e.g., iron, copper, aluminum). The first character 金 (jīn) literally means 'gold' or 'metal' and serves as the semantic component, indicating the word’s domain. The second character 属 (shǔ) means 'to belong to' or 'category', functioning here as a classifier suffix that forms abstract nouns denoting a type or class — so together, 金属 literally means 'the category that belongs to metal' or 'metallic substances'.

This term is used in scientific, industrial, and everyday contexts — for example, when discussing materials science, recycling (e.g., metal recycling), construction, or chemistry education. It is a formal, standard term; not colloquial slang. Unlike the standalone character 金 (which can mean 'gold' or 'money'), 金属 always refers to metals as a broad elemental group, never to wealth or currency.