cobalt

See also: Cobalt

English

Chemical element
Co
Previous: iron (Fe)
Next: nickel (Ni)

A pile of electrolytically refined cobalt (sense 1) chips and its cube form.

Etymology

From German Kobalt, formerly also Kobald, ‑olt, ‑old, ‑elt, ‑el, apparently the same word as Kobold (“goblin”), from Middle High German, which became also a Harz Mountains silver miners’ term for rock laced with arsenic and sulfur, so called because it degraded the ore and made the miners ill. Doublet of kobold.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkəʊ.bɒlt/, /ˈkəʊ.bɔːlt/
• (US) enPR: kō'bôlt, IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊ.bɔlt/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊ.bɑlt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

cobalt (usually uncountable, plural cobalts)

2. A chemical element (symbol Co) with an atomic number of 27: a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal.
3. Cobalt blue.
   • 2025 February 21, Leah Dolan, “How the Superman ‘S’ became fashion’s favorite logo”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     And although we’ve certainly seen a variety of blue shades — from periwinkle to cobalt and even Dean Cain’s indigo-washed costume from the 1990’s TV show “Lois & Clark” — Superman’s uniform is still instantly recognizable across generations. In fact, there is only one film — Zack Snyder’s 2013 “Man of Steel” — in which Superman does not wear his iconic red belted trunks.

Derived terms

• anticobalt
• cobalamin
• cobalt-60
• cobaltamine
• cobaltammine
• cobaltarthurite
• cobaltate
• cobaltaustinite
• cobalt-bicarbonate method
• cobalt-bloom
• cobalt blue
• cobalt bomb
• cobalt-bronze
• cobalt chelatase
• cobalt cheletase
• cobalt chloride
• cobalt crust
• cobalt dichloride
• cobalt difluoride
• cobalt fluoride
• cobalt-glance
• cobalt green
• cobalti-
• cobaltian
• cobaltic
• cobaltiferous
• cobalt(II) sulfate
• cobaltite
• cobaltkieserite
• cobaltkoritnigite
• cobaltlike
• cobaltlotharmeyerite
• cobalto-
• cobaltoan
• cobaltocene
• cobaltocheletase
• cobaltomenite
• cobaltous
• cobalt oxide
• cobalt-pyrites
• cobalt red
• cobalt-sixty
• cobalt-speiss
• cobalt therapy
• cobalttsumcorite
• cobalt ultramarine
• cobalt violet
• cobalt-vitriol
• cobalt yellow
• cobamide
• cobinamide
• dicobalt
• earthy cobalt
• gray cobalt
• grey cobalt
• luteocobalt
• noncobalt
• organocobalt
• praseocobalt
• purpureocobalt
• radiocobalt
• red cobalt
• samarium-cobalt magnet
• silver-white cobalt
• telecobalt
• tin-white cobalt
• tricobalt

Translations

chemical element

• Afrikaans: kobalt (af)
• Albanian: kobalt (sq)
• Arabic: كُوبَلْت m (kūbalt) or كُوبَالْت m (kūbālt)
• Armenian: կոբալտ (hy) (kobalt)
• Asturian: cobaltu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani:

  Arabic: قوبالت (qobalt, kobalt), زرنخ داشى (zırnıkh dāshi)

  Latin: kobalt

• Basque: kobaltoa
• Belarusian: ко́бальт m (kóbalʹt)
• Breton: kobalt m
• Bulgarian: коба́лт m (kobált)
• Burmese: ကိုဘော့ (kuibhau.)
• Catalan: cobalt (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鈷 / 钴 (zh) (gǔ)

• Cornish: cobolt
• Crimean Tatar: kobalt, zırnıq
• Czech: kobalt (cs) m
• Danish: kobolt (da)
• Dutch: kobalt (nl) n
• Esperanto: kobalto (eo)
• Estonian: koobalt (et)
• Faroese: kobolt n
• Finnish: koboltti (fi)
• French: cobalt (fr) m
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: kobalt

• Friulian: cobalt
• Galician: cobalto (gl) m
• Georgian: კობალტი (ḳobalṭi)
• German: Kobalt (de) n
• Greek: κοβάλτιο (el) n (kováltio)
• Hebrew: קובלט (he) (qóbalt)
• Hindi: केत्वातु (ketvātu)
• Hungarian: kobalt (hu)
• Icelandic: kóbalt
• Interlingua: cobalt
• Irish: cóbalt (ga)
• Italian: cobalto (it) m
• Japanese: コバルト (ja) (kobaruto)
• Kashubian: kabalt
• Kazakh: кобальт (kk) (kobalt)
• Khmer: កូបាល (koubaal)
• Korean: 코발트 (ko) (kobalteu)
• Kyrgyz: кобальт (kobalt)
• Lao: ໂຄບອລຕ໌ (khō bǭn ta)
• Latvian: kobalts m
• Lingala: kobalti class 9a/10a
• Lithuanian: kobaltas (lt)
• Luxembourgish: Kobalt
• Macedonian: кобалт m (kobalt)
• Malay: kobalt
• Maltese: kobalt
• Manx: cobalt
• Māori: koporata
• Marathi: कोबाल्ट n (kobālṭa)
• Mongolian: кобальт m (kobalʹt)
• Navajo: béésh łibáhí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kobolt (no) m or n

  Nynorsk: kobolt (nn) m

• Occitan: cobalt (oc) m
• Persian: کبالت (fa) (kobâlt)
• Polish: kobalt (pl) m
• Portuguese: cobalto (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਕੋਬਾਲਟ (pa) (kobālaṭ)
• Romanian: cobalt (ro) n
• Russian: ко́бальт (ru) m (kóbalʹt)
• Scottish Gaelic: còbalt
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кобалт m

  Latin: kobalt (sh) m

• Slovak: kobalt (sk)
• Slovene: kobalt (sl)
• Spanish: cobalto (es) m
• Swahili: kobalti
• Swedish: kobolt (sv) c (rarely n)
• Tagalog: kobalto
• Tajik: кобалт (kobalt)
• Tamil: மென்வெள்ளி (meṉveḷḷi), கோபால்ட் (ta) (kōpālṭ)
• Thai: โคบอลต์ (koo-bɔ́l)
• Turkish: kobalt (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: قوبالت (qōbālt), زرنيق طاشى (zırnıq taşı)

• Turkmen: kobalt
• Ukrainian: ко́бальт m (kóbalʹt)
• Uyghur: كوبالت (kobalt)
• Uzbek: kobalt (uz)

  Cyrillic: кобальт (uz)

• Vietnamese: coban
• Volapük: kobaltin (vo)
• Welsh: cobalt (cy)
• Yiddish: קאָבאַלט m (kobalt)

See also

• asbolan, asbolite
• erythrite
• glaucodot
• skutterudite
• smaltine

Catalan

Chemical element
Co
Previous: ferro (Fe)
Next: níquel (Ni)

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kobalt.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kuˈβal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [koˈbalt]

• Audio (Valencia):

  (file)

Noun

cobalt m (uncountable)

1. cobalt

Further reading

• “cobalt”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “cobalt”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “cobalt” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “cobalt”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Danish

Chemical element
Co
Previous: jern (Fe)
Next: nikkel (Ni)

Alternative forms

• kobolt (official spelling)
• kobalt

Etymology

From German Kobold.

Noun

cobalt c (singular definite cobalten or cobaltet, not used in plural form)

1. cobalt

Declension

Declension of cobalt

common gender	singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	cobalt	cobalten cobaltet
genitive	cobalts	cobaltens cobaltets

References

• “cobalt” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kobalt.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.balt/

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

cobalt m (plural cobalts)

1. cobalt

Further reading

• “cobalt”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Occitan

Etymology

From German Kobalt.

Noun

cobalt m (uncountable)

1. cobalt

Romanian

Chemical element
Co
Previous: fier (Fe)
Next: nichel (Ni)

Etymology

Borrowed from French cobalt or German Kobalt, from German Kobold (“goblin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkobalt/
• Hyphenation: co‧balt

Noun

cobalt n (uncountable)

1. cobalt (chemical element)

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	cobalt	cobaltul
genitive-dative	cobalt	cobaltului
vocative	cobaltule

References

• “cobalt”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Welsh

Chemical element
Co
Previous: haearn (Fe)
Next: nicel (Ni)

Crisialau a chiwb cromiwm

Etymology

Borrowed from English cobalt, from German Kobold (“goblin”).

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔbalt/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈkoːbalt/, /ˈkɔbalt/
• Rhymes: -ɔbalt

Noun

cobalt m (uncountable)

1. cobalt

Mutation

Mutated forms of cobalt

radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
cobalt	gobalt	nghobalt	chobalt

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “cobalt”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies