Coal
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel. uncountable
"The coal in this region was prized by ironmasters in centuries past, who mined it in the spots where the drainage methods of the day permitted."
- 2 a hot fragment of wood or coal that is left from a fire and is glowing or smoldering wordnet
- 3 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. countable
"Put some coal on the fire."
- 4 fossil fuel consisting of carbonized vegetable matter deposited in the Carboniferous period wordnet
- 5 A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English) countable
"Put some coals on the fire."
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- 6 A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel. countable
"hot coals"
- 7 Charcoal. countable, uncountable
- 8 Content of low quality. Internet, countable, uncountable
"I'm so sick of seeing this coal online."
- 9 Bombs emitting black smoke on impact. countable, slang, uncountable
- 10 Money. countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable
- 1 To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives). intransitive
"1863, Colonial Secretary to Commander Baldwin, USN shortly after that she coaled again at Simon's Bay; and that after remaining in the neighbourhood of our ports for a time, she proceeded to Mauritius, where she coaled again, and then returned to this colony."
- 2 take in coal wordnet
- 3 To supply with coal. transitive
"to coal a steamer"
- 4 supply with coal wordnet
- 5 To be converted to charcoal. intransitive
"After the initial burn the goal of any good fire should be coaling; that is, creating a bed of solid coals that will sustain the fire."
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- 6 burn to charcoal wordnet
- 7 To burn to charcoal; to char. transitive
"Char-coal of roots, coaled into great pieces."
- 8 To mark or delineate with charcoal. transitive
"[…] marvailing, he coaled out these rithms upon the wall near to the picture"
- 1 Black like coal; coal-black. no-comparative
"... his coal hair / the corners of his warm smile / the blue of his gentle eyes. I wanted to explore him as Sir Francis Drake explored the New World. I wanted to tell my secrets to him as a Roman Catholic does in confession."
- 1 An unincorporated community in Henry County, Missouri, United States, named after early settler Stephen Coale.
- 2 An unincorporated community and coal town in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States.
- 3 Four townships in the United States, in Missouri, Ohio (2), and Pennsylvania, listed under Coal Township.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"We have used our ration of coal for the week."
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.
Related phrases
More for "coal"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.