An infrared-absorbing material is provided, the infrared-absorbing material including at least one kind of transition metal; and at least one kind of element selected from B, C, N, O, etc., as a ligand of the transition metal, wherein at a bottom part of a conduction band, a bottom band of the conduction band is formed, the bottom band of the conduction band being a band occupied by d orbitals of the transition metal or a band in which the d orbitals of the transition metal and p orbitals of the ligand are hybridized, at a top part of a valence band, a top band of the valence band is formed, the top band of the valence band being a band occupied by the p orbitals of the ligand or a band in which the p orbitals of the ligand and the d orbitals of the transition metal are hybridized, in two wavenumber directions or less, which are highly symmetric points in a Brillouin zone, the bottom band of the conduction band and the top band of the valence band are close to each other by less than 3.0 eV, in another wavenumber direction excluding the wavenumber direction in which the bottom band of the conduction band and the top band of the valence band are close to each other by less than 3.0 eV, a wide band gap structure, in which a band gap is 3.0 eV or more, is formed, and a plasma frequency is 2.5 eV or more and 10.0 eV or less.