Tungsten · element 74
The metal with the highest melting point of them all, from light bulb filaments to drill bits and fake gold bars
Key facts
For most of the twentieth century, tungsten lit the world. A coil of tungsten wire heated to more than 2500 °C glows white, and because tungsten melts at a higher temperature than any other metal, it could do this for thousands of hours without failing. The incandescent bulb is fading now, but tungsten has not. Its hardness, heat resistance and sheer density keep it in cutting tools, armour, X-ray machines, welding rods and the tips of darts.
The element carries two names. Tungsten comes from the Swedish for heavy stone, a description of the mineral scheelite. Its symbol W comes from wolfram, the name still used in German and several other languages, which derives from the mineral wolframite.
Where it is found
Tungsten is never found as a metal. Its two important ores are wolframite, an iron manganese tungstate, and scheelite, calcium tungstate.
China holds most of the world's reserves and produces the large majority of its tungsten, with smaller contributions from Vietnam, Russia, Bolivia, Rwanda and a handful of other countries. Because of this concentration, tungsten is classed as a critical raw material in Europe and the United States, and recycling of cemented carbide scrap is an important secondary source.
How it was discovered
In 1781 the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele showed that scheelite contained a previously unknown acid, tungstic acid, and suggested a new metal could be obtained from it. Two years later the Spanish brothers Juan José and Fausto Elhuyar, working in the Basque Country, extracted the same acid from wolframite and then reduced it with charcoal to produce the metal itself. They are credited with the discovery of tungsten as an element.
The metal remained a laboratory curiosity for a century because it was so hard to shape. The turning point came in the early 1900s when William Coolidge at General Electric found a way to make tungsten ductile so it could be drawn into fine wire, opening the door to the modern light bulb.
What we use it for
The single biggest use is tungsten carbide, often called cemented carbide or simply carbide. Grains of tungsten carbide bonded with cobalt make a material nearly as hard as diamond that stays hard when hot. It forms the cutting edges of machine tools, drill bits for rock and metal, the tips of saw blades, mining picks, armour piercing rounds, the balls in ballpoint pens and even scratch resistant wedding rings.
Pure tungsten and tungsten alloys are used wherever heat is extreme: electrodes for arc welding, heating elements in vacuum furnaces, targets in X-ray tubes, and nozzles in rocket engines.
Its density makes it useful as ballast and shielding. Tungsten alloys balance aircraft control surfaces, form the barrels of professional darts, replace lead in fishing weights, and block radiation in medical and industrial equipment.
Reading the numbers
Tungsten melts at about 3422 °C, the highest of any metal, and boils near 5930 °C, a temperature close to that of the surface of the Sun. Its density of 19.25 grams per cubic centimetre is almost identical to gold at 19.3, which is why gold plated tungsten bars have been used to fool buyers. It is roughly two and a half times as dense as iron.
The configuration [Xe] 4f14 5d4 6s2 places tungsten in group 6 beneath chromium and molybdenum, and like them it shows many oxidation states, with +6 the most common. Its six outer electrons form very strong metallic bonds, which is the root of the high melting point and the very low thermal expansion. The electronegativity of 2.36 is high for a transition metal, reflecting how tightly tungsten holds its electrons. Natural tungsten is a blend of five isotopes, giving an atomic mass of 183.84.
Safety and the environment
Bulk tungsten is inert and safe to handle. Tungsten is the heaviest element known to be used by any living thing, appearing in enzymes of some bacteria and archaea, but it has no known role in humans. Concerns have been raised about the dust from tungsten carbide with cobalt, which is linked to lung disease in workers, and about tungsten alloy fragments in the body, so occupational exposure is controlled.
Tungsten mining and processing produce tailings and waste, and the industry is dominated by a few regions. On the positive side, tungsten is highly recyclable, with a large share of carbide scrap returned to use, and it is increasingly chosen to replace lead in ammunition and fishing tackle where lead poisoning of wildlife is a concern.
Did you know?
- Tungsten has the highest melting point of any metal, at about 3422 °C, which is why it served as the filament in light bulbs for a century.
- Tungsten is almost exactly as dense as gold, and gold plated tungsten bars have been used in attempts to counterfeit bullion.
- The symbol W comes from wolfram, the name still used in German, after a mineral that medieval tin miners said devoured tin like a wolf.
- Tungsten carbide bonded with cobalt is hard enough to cut steel and is used in everything from drill bits to ballpoint pen tips and wedding rings.
- Tungsten is the heaviest element known to have a biological role, in enzymes of certain bacteria and archaea.
- Tungsten has one of the lowest thermal expansion coefficients of any pure metal, so it barely changes size when heated.
More in the transition metals
Column-mates come first, since elements in one column have outer electrons arranged in a similar way and tend to behave alike; the rest are the nearest neighbours in the family.
See all 38 transition metals on one page, or browse all 118 elements.
Compare Tungsten with another element
Each comparison has a side-by-side data table and a plain-English summary of the differences.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the symbol for tungsten W?
The symbol comes from wolfram, the element's name in German and several other languages. Wolfram derives from wolframite, one of its ores, which medieval tin miners disliked because it consumed tin during smelting, like a wolf. The English name tungsten is Swedish for heavy stone.
What is tungsten used for?
Most tungsten goes into tungsten carbide for cutting tools, drill bits and wear parts. The metal is also used in welding electrodes, X-ray tube targets, furnace heating elements, halogen lamp filaments, radiation shielding, counterweights and dart barrels.
Is tungsten heavier than gold?
Tungsten has a density of about 19.25 grams per cubic centimetre and gold about 19.3, so they are almost the same. This near match has been exploited to make fake gold bars with a tungsten core, which is why serious buyers test bullion by other means.
Is tungsten toxic?
Bulk tungsten metal is considered safe and is used in jewellery and medical equipment. Dust from tungsten carbide and cobalt tools has been linked to lung disease in exposed workers, so it is controlled in factories, and tungsten is increasingly used as a less harmful substitute for lead.
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Written by Anthony. Updated September 2026. Numerical data from Periodic-Table-JSON (CC BY-SA), cross-checked against the Tungsten reference article. Spotted an error? Tell us.