Definition: Non-ferrous metal in a narrow sense, also called non-ferrous metal, is a general term for all metals except iron, manganese, and chromium.

The non-ferrous metals in the broad sense also include non-ferrous alloys. A non-ferrous alloy is an alloy made up of a non-ferrous metal (usually greater than 50%) and one or more other elements added.

Non-ferrous metals usually refer to all metals except iron (sometimes manganese and chromium are also removed) and iron-based alloys. Non-ferrous metals can be divided into heavy metals (such as copper, lead, zinc), light metals (such as aluminum, magnesium), precious metals (such as gold, silver, platinum) and rare metals (such as tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, lithium, antimony, uranium).