American Heritage Dictionary Entry: iron HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key. Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window. guide to the dictionary THE USAGE PANEL The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions. The Panelists NEED HELP SOLVING A CROSSWORD PUZZLE? Go to our Crossword Puzzle Solver and type in the letters that you know, and the Solver will produce a list of possible solutions. -- AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android. THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more. OPEN DICTIONARY PROJECT Share your ideas for new words and new meanings of old words! Start Sharing Now! -- See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series! Find out more! INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES? Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com i·ron (īərn) Share: Tweet n. 1. Symbol Fe A silvery-white, lustrous, malleable, ductile, magnetic or magnetizable, metallic element occurring abundantly in combined forms, notably in hematite, limonite, magnetite, and taconite, and used alloyed in a wide range of important structural materials. Atomic number 26; atomic weight 55.845; melting point 1,538°C; boiling point 2,861°C; specific gravity 7.874 (at 20°C); valence 2, 3, 4, 6. See Periodic Table. 2. An implement made of iron alloy or similar metal, especially a bar heated for use in branding, curling hair, or cauterizing. 3. Great hardness or strength; firmness: a will of iron. 4. Sports Any of a series of golf clubs having a bladelike metal head and numbered from one to nine in order of increasing loft. 5. A metal appliance with a handle and a weighted flat bottom, used when heated to press wrinkles from fabric. 6. A harpoon. 7. irons Fetters; shackles. 8. A tonic, pill, or other medication containing iron and taken as a dietary supplement. adj. 1. Made of or containing iron: iron bars; an iron alloy. 2. Strong, healthy, and capable of great endurance: an iron constitution. 3. Inflexible; unyielding: iron resolve. 4. Holding tightly; very firm: has an iron grip. v. i·roned, i·ron·ing, i·rons v.tr. 1. a. To press and smooth with a heated iron: iron clothes. b. To remove (creases) by pressing. 2. To put into irons; fetter. 3. To fit or clad with iron. v.intr. To iron clothes.Phrasal Verb: iron out To settle through discussion or compromise; work out.Idioms: in irons Nautical Lying head to the wind without steerageway and thus unable to turn either way. iron in the fire An undertaking or project in progress: has many irons in the fire this year. [Middle English iren, from Old English īren; see eis- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices: Indo-European Roots Semitic Roots The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. 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