bronze

/bɹɒnz//bɹɑnz/

bronze noun: a naturally occurring or man-made alloy of copper, usually in combination with tin, but also with one or more other metals.

Image: Jebulon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

bronze (countable and uncountable, plural bronzes)

(uncountable) A naturally occurring or man-made alloy of copper, usually in combination with tin, but also with one or more other metals.
- How little gives thee joy or pain; A print, a bronze, a flower, a root.1720, Matthew Prior, Poems on Several Occasions, page 339
A reddish-brown colour, the colour of bronze.
- Speaking of round sunglasses, these lightweight polarized ones and come in two shades of tortoiseshell as well as black and bronze.2023 June 26, Lauren Caruso and Jillian Tracy, “The 22 best sunglasses for summer, according to style experts”, in CNN, archived from the original on 14 Apr 2025
(countable) A work of art made of bronze, especially a sculpture.
- "This is very good," he continued, addressing himself to the bronze again. "How ever did he do it?"
  "With his hands."
  "Naturally. But, I mean, how did he study his model?"1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados
- On the mantelshelf either side of the clock stood two lacquered bronzes of horse and tamer.1998, Derek Beaven, chapter 9, in Acts of Mutiny, London: Fourth Estate, →ISBN, part 1 (Motion), page 34
A bronze medal; third place.
- She wanted to win the tournament, but had to settle for the bronze after being beaten in the semi-finals.
Boldness; impudence.
- Embrown'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands.1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC
Synonyms:

brass

Adjective

bronze (comparative more bronze, superlative most bronze)

Made of bronze metal.
- The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
Synonyms:

bronzen
Having a reddish-brown colour.
Tanned; darkened as a result of exposure to the sun.
- That girl was dynamite. Dark hair with killer blue eyes, bronze skin, and an exquisite full-figured body.2016, Kit Moulton, Annabella, page 108

Verb

bronze (third-person singular simple present bronzes, present participle bronzing, simple past and past participle bronzed)

(transitive) To plate with bronze.
- My mother bronzed my first pair of baby shoes.
(transitive) To color bronze; (of the sun) to tan.
- The sun was so low that its level rays shot through the tunnels of the forest and bronzed its ceiling of woven leaves when Bess returned to the clearing.1925, DuBose Heyward, Porgy, London: Jonathan Cape, Part IV, p. 137
- North is the bay of Acre, lovely in shape, and, far, far beyond, the cloudy vision of Hermon, its huge landscape now only attainable with a police pass—beautifully solitary except for good-looking young men of the police patrols, all fit and bronzed.1961, Freya Stark, chapter 8, in Dust in the Lion's Paw: Autobiography 1939-1946, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, page 122
(intransitive) To change to a bronze or tan colour due to exposure to the sun.
- His skin began to bronze as he worked in our garden each day.2006, Melissa Lassor, “Out of Darkness”, in Watching Time, page 124
(transitive) To make hard or unfeeling; to brazen.
- the lawyer who bronzes his bosom instead of his forehead1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown...
(intransitive) To finish in third place; to win a bronze medal.
- Louganis' runner-up count was 822.09, and Boggs bronzed at 783.78.1979, Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, AAU News
- Her speedskating teammate, Leah Poulos, captured a 1000m silver in 1976, behind Tatiana Averina of the Soviet Union, who also took the gold in the 3000m and bronzed in the 500m and the 1500m.1992, Martin Connors, Diane L. Dupuis, Brad Morgan, The Olympics Factbook: A Spectator's Guide to the Winter and Summer Games, Visible Ink Press

Proper noun capitalized: Bronze

Bronze (plural Bronzes)

A surname.

Noun (2) capitalized: Bronze

Bronze (plural Bronzes)

A breed of domestic turkey whose plumage has an iridescent bronze-like sheen.

bronze meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

bronze in Hindi

alloy: कांसा kānsā, कांसी kānsī, पीतल pītal, कांस्य kānsya, काँसा kā̃sā, कसकुट kaskuṭ

bronze in Tamil

alloy: வெண்கலம் veṇkalam

bronze in Marathi

कांस्य, ब्रोन्जिंग

bronze in Urdu

alloy: کانسا kānsā, کانسی kānsī

More languagesFewer languages

bronze in Bengali: ব্রোঞ্জ brōnjo
bronze in Telugu: కంచు kañcu, కాంస్యము kāṁsyamu
bronze in Malayalam: വെങ്കലം veṅkalaṁ, ഓട് ōṭŭ
bronze in Kannada: ಕಂಚು kañcu
bronze in Punjabi: ਕਾਂਸੀ kānsī, ਕਹਿੰ kahĩ
bronze in Gujarati: બ્રોન્ઝ, કાંસ્ય, બ્રોન્ઝિંગ
bronze in Odia: ବ୍ରୋଞ୍ଜ, କାଂସ୍ଯ଼, ବ୍ରୋଞ୍ଜକୁ
bronze in Sanskrit: कांस्य kāṃsya
bronze in Nepali: पित्तल pittal, काँसो kā̃so, कांस्य kānsya, कसकुट kasakuṭ
bronze in Tagalog: tanso, bronse
bronze in Arabic: بُرُنْزٌ burunzun, فِلِزّ filizz, بُرُونْز burūnz, بُرُنْزِيٌّ brunz
bronze in Malay: gangsa, perunggu, tembaga perunggu
bronze in Indonesian: perunggu, gangsa, tembaga perunggu
bronze in Persian: برنز boronz
bronze in Thai: สำริด sǎm-rít
bronze in Vietnamese: đồng điếu, đồng đỏ, đồng vàng, đồng thanh
bronze in Myanmar: ကြေး kre:

Examples of bronze in a sentence

After casting the bronze statue, we filed down the flukes and spurs from the molding process.
After carbon-dating the artifact, the archaeologist determined that it was of late bronze age manufacture.
The sculptor represented a horse in bronze.

All 40 example sentences with bronze

Synonyms of bronze

Forms of bronze

Noun
plural	bronzes
plural	Bronzes
Adjective
comparative	more bronze
superlative	most bronze
Verb
third-person singular present	bronzes
present participle	bronzing
past participle	bronzed
past	bronzed
Proper noun
plural	Bronzes

Past tense of bronze: bronzed

Plural of bronze: bronzes

Origin of bronze

From French bronze (1511); from Italian bronzo (13th c.), of uncertain origin (q.v.). First use appears c. 1721 in the writings of Matthew Prior (for which, see citation below).

Phrases with bronze

4 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with bronze

Questions about bronze

What does bronze mean?: Bronze means a naturally occurring or man-made alloy of copper, usually in combination with tin, but also with one or more other metals.
What is bronze in Hindi?: Bronze in Hindi is कांसा (kānsā), कांसी (kānsī), पीतल (pītal). See Bronze meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is bronze?: Bronze can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bronze?: Bronze is pronounced /bɹɒnz/ (UK).
What is the plural of bronze?: The plural of bronze is bronzes.

Words near bronze in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: bronze (page history and authors); Bronze (page history and authors); bronze (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bronze (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bronze (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bronze.wav, en-us-bronze.ogg, en-au-bronze.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bronze.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bronze. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.