An ingot is a block of metal that has been melted down and poured into a mold to cool and harden into a standard shape. Picture a rectangular brick of gold, silver, or steel: that's an ingot. The shape makes the metal easy to store, stack, transport, and measure.

Factories and metalworkers create ingots as an intermediate step in manufacturing. A steel mill might pour molten metal into molds to create heavy steel ingots, which can later be reheated and shaped into car parts, building beams, or tools. Precious metals like gold and silver are often stored as ingots in bank vaults because the uniform shape makes them easy to count and verify.

You might see ingots in movies about treasure or gold heists: those gleaming gold bars stacked in a vault are gold ingots. In video games about mining and crafting, players often smelt raw ore in a furnace to create ingots they can use for building or trading.

While ingots are usually brick-shaped, they can be cylindrical or trapezoidal depending on what's most practical for the metal and its intended use. What makes something an ingot isn't the exact shape but the purpose: creating a standard, stackable form of refined metal.