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The metallic element "cobalt" ultimately draws its name from folklore. In Middle High German, "kobolt" denoted a usually helpful household elf that engaged in nasty pranks only when it was offended. Later, early Modern German Kobold came to refer to a variety of less helpful goblins inhabiting fields and mountains. The variant "Kobolt" in the 16th century was applied by German miners to ores containing the metal cobalt, which they considered to be worthless; they believed that mountain goblins had spoiled adjacent silver ores, or had stolen the silver within the ore. The metal itself in relatively pure form was not produced and described until the 17th century, when "cobalt," with its first letter influenced by New Latin cobaltum, became part of the international language of science.
Examples of cobalt in a Sentence
Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 May 2025
Turning Strategy into Steel, Powder, and Product From neodymium-iron-boron magnets for electric drivetrains to high-purity intermediate cobalt and nickel precursors for next-generation batteries, a growing cadre of Western manufacturers is rewriting the critical-materials playbook.
—William Jones, USA Today, 16 May 2025
The ocean was varying shades of blue, from turquoise to cerulean to cobalt.
—Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 2025
These minerals, which tend to have a high risk of supply chain disruption, include metals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements.
—Sam Meredith, CNBC, 14 May 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Cobalt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cobalt. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
from German Kobalt "cobalt," an altered form of Kobold, literally, "goblin"; so called because its appearance in silver ore was thought to have been the work of goblins who left it in place of silver which they stole
Medical Definition
cobalt
noun
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