coal
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kəʊl/
ipa: [kʰɒʊɫ]
note: doll–dole merger
ipa: /kɒl/
ipa: /kɐʉl/
ipa: [kʰɒʊɫ]
ipa: /koʊl/
ipa: [kʰoɫ]
rhymes: -əʊl
homophone: cole
homophone: kohl
Forms: form: coals
form: cole
form: coale
form: colle
form: coole
form: coell
form: coile
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.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
text: Coal-eaters they may have been, but a more willing or harder working Atlantic engine was never designed.
ref: 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, pages 3, 5:
glosses: A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.
examples: text: Put some coal on the fire.
text: Order some coal from the coalyard.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Put some coals on the fire.
glosses: A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)
examples: text: hot coals
text: glowing coals
text: Just as the campfire died down to just coals, with no flames to burn the marshmallows, someone dumped a whole load of wood on, so I gave up and went to bed.
coordinate_terms: ember
cinder
ash
clinker
glosses: A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.
glosses: Charcoal.
examples: text: I'm so sick of seeing this coal online.
glosses: Content of low quality.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: Bombs emitting black smoke on impact.
glosses: Money.
Hyponyms: anthracite
bituminous coal
brown coal
charcoal
lignite
seacoal
sea coal
soft coal
Derived terms: word: anticoal
word: at the coal face
word: barley coal
word: bituminous coal
word: black as coal
word: black coal
word: blind coal
word: block coal
word: boghead coal
word: Bovey coal
word: brown coal
word: buckwheat coal
word: burn coal
word: burn the coal
word: burn the coal, pay the toll
word: caking coal
word: canal coal
word: candle coal
word: cannel coal
word: channel coal
word: cherry coal
word: clean coal
word: coalbag
word: coal ball
word: coal-based
word: coal-bearing
word: coal bed
word: coalbin
word: coalblack
word: coal black
word: coalbox
word: coalboy
word: coal brass
word: coal burner
word: coal burning
word: coal car
word: Coal City
word: Coal County
word: coal cracker
word: Coal Creek
word: coalcutter
word: coal drop
word: coaldust
word: coaler
word: coalery
word: coalette
word: coalface
word: coalfield
word: coal-fired
word: coalfired
word: coalfish
taxonomic: Daldinia concentrica
word: coal fungus
word: coal gap
word: coal gas
word: Coalgate
word: coal hammer
word: coalheaver
word: coalheaving
word: coalhod
word: coal hole
word: coalhouse
word: coalie
word: coalification
word: coalify
word: Coalisland
word: Coalite
word: coalless
word: coallike
word: coalman
word: coalmaster
word: coal merchant
word: coal-meter
word: coalmine
word: coal mine
word: coalminer
word: coalmining
word: coalmonger
word: coalmouse
word: coal oil
word: coalowner
word: coalpit
word: coal plant
word: coalplex
word: coalpot
word: coal pusher
word: coal rank
word: coal-rolled
word: coal roller
word: coal-rolling
word: coalsack
word: coal scuttle
word: coal-scuttle bonnet
word: coal scuttle helmet
word: coal seam
word: coalshed
word: coal-smoke
word: coals to Newcastle
word: coal-tar
word: coal tar
word: coaltit
word: coal tit
taxonomic: Periparus ater
word: coal tit
word: coal town
word: coal train
word: Coalville
word: coalwashing
word: coal-whipper
word: coalworker
word: coal worker's pneumoconiosis
word: coalworks
word: coaly
word: coalyard
word: coking coal
word: Colfax
word: day coal
word: dice coal
word: dirty coal
word: gas coal
word: gathering coal
word: glance coal
word: hardcoal
word: hard coal
word: kennel coal
word: kindle-coal
word: metallurgical coal
word: mineral coal
word: mother of coal
word: noncoal
word: parrot coal
word: pitch coal
word: pit coal
word: pitcoal
word: post the coal
word: prairie coal
word: quench-coal
word: quenchcoal
word: recoal
word: roll coal
word: sea-coal
word: sell coal to Newcastle
word: small coal
word: smithy coal
word: soft coal
word: splent coal
word: splint coal
word: steam coal
word: stone coal
word: thermal coal
word: white coal
Related terms: charcoal
collier
colliery
ember
stockpile