magnet
/ˈmæɡ.nɪt/ noun
Forms magnets
- noun A piece of material that attracts some metals by magnetism.
- noun (informal, figuratively, often in combination) An alluring or attractive person or thing. “He always had a girl on his arm – he's a bit of a babe magnet.”
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English magnete, via Old French magnete, Latin magnēs, magnētem (“lodestone”), from Ancient Greek μαγνῆτις [λίθος] (magnêtis [líthos], “Magnesian [stone]”), either after the Lydian city Magnesia ad Sipylum (modern-day Manisa, Turkey), or after the Greek region of Μαγνησία (Magnēsía) (whence came the colonists who founded the city in Lydia). Related to manganese, magnesia and magnesium.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The loadstone; a species of iron ore (the ferrosoferric or magnetic ore, Fe3O4) which has the property of attracting iron and some of its ores, and, when freely suspended, of pointing to the poles; --called also natural magnet.
- noun A bar or mass of steel or iron to which the peculiar properties of the loadstone have been imparted; --called, in distinction from the loadstone, an artificial magnet.
Etymology [OE. magnete, OF. magnete, L. magnes, -etis, Gr. Magnesia, Manganese.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “magnet”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details