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coal

Pronunciation: /kəʊl/

The English word “coal” has 14 meanings listed here.

noun

  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 piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)
  4. A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.
  5. Charcoal.
  6. Content of low quality.
  7. Bombs emitting black smoke on impact.
  8. Money.

verb

  1. To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives).
  2. To supply with coal.
  3. To be converted to charcoal.
  4. To burn to charcoal; to char.
  5. To mark or delineate with charcoal.

adjective

  1. Black like coal; coal-black.

Etymology

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.