An ingot is a piece of pure metal, especially gold, usually shaped like a brick. A factory melts metal and pours it into a mould; when it goes hard, that block is an ingot. Gold ingots are the bricks people picture locked away. Other metals come in ingots too — silver, iron, steel — before anyone turns them into wire, coins, or machines. You hear the word in metal work, trade, and news about gold. Though actually, in everyday talk many people just say a gold bar. Ingot is the more exact name for that brick of metal.