Encountered aluminium, or something like it (5)
I believe the answer is:
metal
'something like it' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'encountered aluminium' is the wordplay.
'encountered' becomes 'met' ('meet' can be a synonym of 'encounter').
'aluminium' becomes 'al' (Al is the chemical symbol for aluminium).
'met'+'al'='METAL'
'or' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for metal that I've seen before include "Copper or gold, say" , "Musically it can be heavy" , "Zirconium, for example" , "Broken stones" , "tin, perhaps" .)