coal
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kohlIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkoʊl
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
uncountable
A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.
countable
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
A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)
countable
A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.
A hot fragment of wood or coal that is left from a fire and is glowing or smoldering
Charcoal.
verb
intransitive
To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives).
transitive
To burn to charcoal; to char.
intransitive
To be converted to charcoal.
transitive
To mark or delineate with charcoal.
adjective
Black like coal; coal-black.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.
Used this way, coal is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It keeps things gentle rather than emphatic.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Calm and reassuring
- Usage feel
- Understated and gentle
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use coal
- “Historically, coal was a very important fuel source.”
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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.