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.
Phonetic 忒 tè, for the 'ter-' of terbium.
This character is used for the element and little else — you are unlikely to meet it outside a chemistry classroom.
Where it sits among the 118
First isolated in 1843.
Where it comes from in China
Terbium is the scarcest of the magnet metals and shares its source with dysprosium: the ion-adsorption clays of southern Jiangxi and its neighbours, especially the country around Longnan. Deposits of this kind need the right granite and then a very long spell under warm rain, and the ones that actually supply the world are concentrated in the subtropical belt of southern China and the adjoining parts of Southeast Asia. The ore is soft red-brown clay, which is why one of the most valuable orebodies on the planet looks exactly like an ordinary hillside.
The full entry
For stroke order, example sentences, audio and the complete set of meanings, see the dictionary entry.
铽Terbium in the dictionary →Others built the same way
Every one of these carries 钅, and every one is a metal.