ElementsWhat is tungsten?
Tungsten is a grey metal with the highest melting point of all metals. It is about as dense as gold.
What is tungsten used for?
Tungsten carbide for drill bits and cutting tools, lamp filaments, welding electrodes, and weights.
Where the name comes from
From Swedish words meaning 'heavy stone'. The symbol W comes from wolfram, its other name.
Key facts
- Symbol
- W
- Atomic number
- 74
- Atomic mass
- 183.84 u
- Family
- Transition metal
- Period
- 6
- Group
- 6
- Block
- d
- State at room temperature
- Solid
- Melting point
- 3,422 °C (3,695 K, 6,191 °F)
- Boiling point
- 5,555 °C (5,828 K, 10,031 °F)
- Density
- 19.3 g/cm³
- Electrons per shell
- 2, 8, 18, 32, 12, 2
- Electron configuration
- [Xe]6s2 4f14 5d4
- Common oxidation states
- +6
- Electronegativity (Pauling)
- 2.36
- First ionisation energy
- 7.98 eV
- Electron affinity
- 0.815 eV
- Atomic radius (van der Waals)
- 210 pm
- Discovered
- 1783
Place in the periodic table
Tungsten is element number 74. It sits in period 6 (row 6) of the periodic table, in group 6 (column 6), and belongs to the d-block. Just before it comes tantalum (73), and just after it comes rhenium (75). In the same column, molybdenum is above it and seaborgium is below it. Elements in one column tend to behave alike.
Family: Transition metals.
Physical properties
At room temperature tungsten is a solid. It melts at 3,422 °C and boils at 5,555 °C, so it stays liquid over a range of 2,133 degrees. Its density is 19.3 grams per cubic centimetre, so a one-litre block would weigh about 19.3 kilograms. By density it ranks 7th among the 96 elements with a measured value. It has the 2nd highest melting point of all elements.
Inside the atom
An atom of tungsten has 74 protons in its nucleus and, when neutral, 74 electrons around it. The electrons are arranged in 6 shells: 2, 8, 18, 32, 12, 2. The outermost shell holds 2 electrons. Written in full, the electron configuration is [Xe]6s2 4f14 5d4.
Its electronegativity on the Pauling scale is 2.36. This number shows how strongly an atom pulls shared electrons towards itself: fluorine, the strongest, is 3.98. Removing one electron from an atom takes 7.98 electronvolts (about 770 kilojoules per mole). One mole of tungsten weighs 183.84 grams, so a single gram contains about 3.28 × 1021 atoms.
The ring picture is a simple model that only counts the electrons in each shell. Real atoms do not look like this.
Next steps
- Work out the weight of a compound that contains tungsten with the molar mass calculator.
- Compare it with every other element in the sortable list.
- Test yourself with the symbol quiz.
Figures on this page are from PubChem (U.S. National Library of Medicine), as downloaded on 11 November 2026. See About and data sources.