How to Use iridium in a Sentence

iridium

noun
  • When the Earth was forming, most iridium sank below the molten crust.
    — Michael Ordoña, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 Nov. 2017
  • Supplies of copper, lithium, cobalt, iridium, and tin also may be crimped.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 5 July 2023
  • The mainstay electrodes used for brain mapping are disks of platinum iridium set in silicon.
    — Emily Mullin, WIRED, 26 Sep. 2024
  • There is reason to believe that some asteroids are rich in valuable metals, such as platinum and iridium.
    — The Economist, 21 Sep. 2017
  • But iridium is among the rarest elements on Earth, costing about $160 per gram.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 13 Oct. 2025
  • The design also reduces exposure to price swings in iridium.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 13 Oct. 2025
  • The core helped to precisely date the sediments containing iridium-rich dust.
    — David Bressan, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2021
  • Researchers create antiprotons by smashing regular protons at close to the speed of light against a block made of a metal called iridium.
    — Jacopo Prisco, CNN Money, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Ni says the company is looking for cheaper options to replace iridium, a rare and expensive metal.
    — Robert Service, Science | AAAS, 1 Sep. 2017
  • These methods often require precious metals like platinum or iridium.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 17 Apr. 2026
  • First the outer shield, then the aluminum components and finally the parts made out of iridium will burn away, all vaporizing in perhaps a minute.
    — Traci Watson, USA TODAY, 29 Aug. 2017
  • Project officials said once the iridium melts, the plutonium will be dispersed into the atmosphere.
    — Washington Post, 12 Sep. 2017
  • What's more, the fish were found just beneath a layer of rock known as the iridium anomaly, which is rich in a dense element common in asteroids and rare on Earth.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 23 Feb. 2022
  • When the asteroid struck Earth, a cloud of dust laced with iridium, a metal common in meteorites, blanketed the planet.
    — Dino Grandoni The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 26 Oct. 2025
  • Dunn and Currano spent a month in the field looking for rocks bearing the telltale stripe of iridium deposits the asteroid strike left on Earth.
    — Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2023
  • Furthermore, many modern lab breakthroughs use rare, hyper-expensive metals like platinum or iridium to drive their chemistry.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 12 June 2026
  • This impact left iridium traces around the world and triggered the unimaginable disaster that killed the dinosaurs and countless other species of animals and plants on land and in the sea.
    — Hans Sues, Discover Magazine, 15 Aug. 2024
  • Geologists soon found a similar iridium layer at the same geological strata in other parts of the world.
    — Nina Burleigh, Newsweek, 11 June 2015
  • Rather than basing the kilogram off of an object—a platinum-iridium alloy cylinder about the size of a golf ball—the new definition uses a constant of nature to set the unit of mass.
    — Jay Bennett, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 May 2012
  • Season 5 takes place in the 2010s in the aftermath of the iridium-rich Goldilocks asteroid heist from last season.
    — Jeff Spry, Space.com, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Archives necklace in platinum-iridium with diamonds, among other jewelry pieces.
    — Karla Rodriguez, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
  • The last fragments to survive will be its plutonium power supplies, still wrapped in the iridium and shielding meant to reduce risk to Earth during its launch nearly two decades ago.
    — Mika McKinnon, Discover Magazine, 14 Sep. 2017
  • With its standard-setting platinum-iridium meter bars and kilogram nuggets stored in safes, this institution worships accuracy.
    — Brian Alexander, WIRED, 1 June 2001
  • To increase their stability, the prototypes were reforged in 1889 out of a platinum-iridium alloy and stowed under lock and key.
    — Robert Rathe, National Geographic, 20 May 2019
  • Precious metals like platinum and iridium were needed to boost efficiency, making a cheaper catalyst crucial.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 24 Oct. 2019
  • Platinum-iridium alloys, with X-shapes to better resist distortions, replaced those originals.
    — Big Think, 10 Nov. 2025
  • The rock layer marking the end of the Cretaceous period was rich in iridium, a metal that is rare in Earth’s crust but more common in meteorites and asteroids.
    — National Geographic, 18 Apr. 2016
  • Within seconds the gas streaming around the plummeting probe will reach temperatures hot enough to melt its aluminum chassis, followed by the iridium cladding that shields its plutonium power source.
    — Lee Billings, Scientific American, 14 Sep. 2017
  • Across the globe, a thin layer of iridium — a chemical element that’s rare on Earth but common in extraterrestrial objects — entombs the dinosaurs like a coffin lid.
    — Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 7 Apr. 2021
  • These include a layer of iridium from the asteroid, droplets of molten rock that rained down after the impact, wave deposits as far away as North Dakota and the charred remains of forest burned by the heat of the blast.
    — Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 16 July 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'iridium.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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