What it means
فلز (felez) means metal. The word was borrowed from Arabic فِلِزّ (filizz), and it has been part of Persian for many centuries. In modern usage it covers all metallic materials, from common ones like آهن (ahan, iron) and مس (mes, copper) to precious ones like طلا (tala, gold). A useful contrast is غیرفلز (gheyr-felez), meaning non-metal, which appears in chemistry classes.
How to use it
- آهن یه فلز محکمه. (ahan ye felez-e mohkame.) “Iron is a strong metal.”
- این جعبه از فلز ساخته شده. (in ja’be az felez sakhte shode.) “This box is made of metal.”
- فلزات هادی برق هستن. (felezzat hadi-ye barq hastan.) “Metals are conductors of electricity.”
- طلا گرونترین فلزه که همه میشناسن. (tala gerun-tarin felezze ke hame mi-shenasan.) “Gold is the most expensive metal that everyone knows.”
Cultural note
Metalworking has been central to Iranian civilization for thousands of years. Historians trace sophisticated bronze and iron craftsmanship in the Iranian plateau back to the second millennium BCE. The word felez itself reflects the long Arab influence on Persian technical vocabulary after the Islamic conquest of Iran in the seventh century. In contemporary Persian, felez is fully naturalized and no longer feels foreign, appearing equally in bazaar talk about a copper pot and in university lectures on metallurgy.