Is iron the ONLY ferrous pure metal, while every other ferrous metal is an alloy?

Question

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around classifying metals. So far, I’ve seen two divisions:

1. Pure metals and Alloys

2. Ferrous and Non-ferrous

But I haven’t exactly seen a source that takes both classification divisions into account. Sources keep saying ferrous metals contain iron, so is iron the only pure metal that’s ferrous? Is iron even a ferrous metal? What about the other magnetic metals like nickel and cobalt?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Ferrous literally means ‘iron bearing’ (roughly). Its latin name is Ferrum, which is the reason the chemical symbol is Fe.

Nothing is ferrous unless it’s iron or has iron in it.

You might be referring to magnetic, which is not the same thing (though they are sometimes used interchangeably). Magnetism is not limited to iron, but it’s the most strongly interacting common magnetic material.