How the character is built
The 钅 radical marks this as a metal, and that is not a coincidence of this one character — it holds right across the table. Read the radical first and the element's state at room temperature is already settled. It is 金 (jīn) squeezed into the space beside another component — radicals change shape by position, which is why 金 is hard to spot until you know to look for 钅.
This character is used for the element and little else — you are unlikely to meet it outside a chemistry classroom.
The element itself
Beryllium hides in plain sight: emerald and aquamarine are both the mineral beryl, and the difference between a green gem and a blue one is a trace of chromium versus a trace of iron. Because its atoms are so light, beryllium is nearly transparent to X-rays, which is why the windows of X-ray tubes and detectors are made of it — a metal you can see through, if your eyes worked in the right part of the spectrum. It is also stiffer than steel for its weight, and its dust is genuinely dangerous to handle, so it is machined under strict containment.
Where it sits among the 118
First isolated in 1797.
Where it comes from in China
Beryllium in China leads to one remarkable place: the Koktokay pegmatite in the Altai mountains of northern Xinjiang, a single zoned body of coarse granite that yielded beryl alongside lithium, niobium, tantalum and caesium minerals. Pegmatites crystallise from the last water-rich fraction of a granite melt, which is where all the ions too large or too oddly charged for ordinary minerals end up — so the crystals grow enormous and the rare elements gather together in one place. The pit is now as much a geological landmark as a mine.
The full entry
For stroke order, example sentences, audio and the complete set of meanings, see the dictionary entry.
铍Beryllium in the dictionary →Others built the same way
Every one of these carries 钅, and every one is a metal.