charcoal
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
A very dark gray color.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
chahrkohlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃɑɹkoʊl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A very dark gray color.
A very dark grey color
A very dark gray colour.
A carbonaceous material obtained by heating wood or other organic matter in the absence of air
A stick of black carbon material used for drawing
countableuncountable
Impure carbon obtained by destructive distillation of wood or other organic matter, that is, heating it in the absence of oxygen.
adjective
Of a dark gray colour.
Made of charcoal.
verb
Draw, trace, or represent with charcoal
To cook over charcoal.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: a very dark gray color.
Used this way, charcoal is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- charcoal gray , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use charcoal
- “We used charcoal briquettes to grill burgers in the backyard.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: very dark gray color
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.