coal
Meanings
noun
- A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.
- A type of coal, such as bituminous, anthracite, or lignite, and grades and varieties thereof, as a fuel commodity ready to buy and burn.
- A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)
- A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.
- Charcoal.
- Content of low quality.
- Bombs emitting black smoke on impact.
- Money.
verb
- To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives).
- To supply with coal.
- To be converted to charcoal.
- To burn to charcoal; to char.
- To mark or delineate with charcoal.
adj
- Black like coal; coal-black.
name
- An unincorporated community in Henry County, Missouri, United States, named after early settler Stephen Coale.
- An unincorporated community and coal town in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States.
- Four townships in the United States, in Missouri, Ohio (2), and Pennsylvania, listed under Coal Township.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English cole, from Old English col, from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵwelH- (“to burn, shine”). Cognate with West Frisian koal (“coal”), Cimbrian kholl (“coal”), Dutch kool (“coal; carbon”), German Kohle (“coal”), Luxembourgish Kuel (“coal”), Vilamovian köła (“coal”), Yiddish קויל (koyl, “coal”), Danish kul (“coal”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish kol (“coal; carbon”), Jamtish kuł (“coal; carbon”). Compare Middle Irish gúal (“coal”), Lithuanian žvi̇̀lti (“to twinkle, glow”), Persian زغال (zoġâl, “live coal”), Sanskrit ज्वल् (jval, “to burn, glow”), Tocharian B śoliye (“hearth”), all from the same root.
Antonyms
Related words
Derived words
Translations
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