coal

CEFRB1

/kəʊl/

noun

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A hard black rock burned as fuel.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)

Examples

  • A crow is as black as coal.

  • I put more coal on the fire.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • [kʰɒʊɫ]
  • [kʰoɫ]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.

  2. A type of coal, such as bituminous, anthracite, or lignite, and grades and varieties thereof, as a fuel commodity ready to buy and burn.

  3. A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.

More examples

In context

  • We have used our ration of coal for the week.

  • Order some coal from the coalyard.

  • Put some coal on the fire.

Antonyms

Quick test

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The miner carried a heavy sack of blank from the dark tunnel.

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Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English col, from Old English col, from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą (“coal”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵwelH- (“to burn, shine”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian kööl (“coal”), Saterland Frisian Koole (“coal”), West Frisian koal (“coal”), Cimbrian kholl (“coal”), Dutch kool (“coal; carbon”), German Kohle (“coal”), Limburgish Kǫe̩l (“coal”), Luxembourgish Kuel (“coal”), Vilamovian köła (“coal”), Yiddish קויל (koyl, “coal”), Danish kul (“coal”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish kol (“coal; carbon”), Jamtish kuł (“coal; carbon”), Norwegian Bokmål kol, kull (“coal”). Compare Irish and Scottish Gaelic gual (“coal”), Manx geayl (“coal”),...