Kohl

//kəʊl// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A dark powder, usually powdered stibnite (an antimony ore), used as eye makeup, especially in Eastern countries. uncountable
  2. 2
    a cosmetic preparation used by women in Egypt and Arabia to darken the edges of their eyelids wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To decorate one's eyes with kohl. transitive

    "A plain, big woman with heavily kohled eyes and pudgy arms."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from German.

Synonyms

All synonyms
stibnite

Example

More examples

"St. Wolfgang, situated on Lake Wolfgang, one of Austria's best-known lakes, was once a favourite vacation spot of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From the German surname, from Kohl (“cabbage”). Compare Koehl, Cole, Coll, Kail, Kale.

Etymology 2

From Arabic كُحْل (kuḥl, “antimony; kohl, stibnite (powdered antimony)”). Doublet of alcohol and alcool.

Related phrases

kohl pencil

More for "kohl"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.