cool
adjective · noun · verb
Simple meaning
Knowing what to do and how to behave.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
koolIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkul
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.
adjective
informalof a person
Knowing what to do and how to behave; behaving with effortless and enviable style and panache; considered popular by others.
informal
All right; acceptable; good.
Psychologically cool and unenthusiastic; unfriendly or unresponsive or showing dislike
of a person
Not showing emotion; calm and in control of oneself.
Unenthusiastic; lukewarm; skeptical.
Allowing or suggesting heat relief.
noun
A moderate or refreshing state of cold; moderate temperature of the air between hot and cold; coolness.
A calm temperament.
The property of being cool, popular or in fashion.
verb
Loose heat
“The air cooled considerably after the thunderstorm.”
Lose intensity
intransitivefiguratively
To become less intense, e.g. less amicable or passionate.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (informal, of a person) Knowing what to do and how to behave; behaving with effortless and enviable style and panache; considered popular by others.
Used this way, cool is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Nearby words
- corking , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use cool
- “The air cooled considerably after the thunderstorm.”verb
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The process of becoming cooler.
A refrigerator for cooling liquids.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Calm and unruffled self-assurance.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Wait or pass the time aimlessly or futilely.
Become quiet or calm, especially after a state of agitation.
A medium that usually, but not always, provides little involvement together with substantial stimulus.
Equipment in a motor vehicle that cools the engine.
A cooling system used in industry to cool hot water (by partial evaporation) before reusing it as a coolant.
Jazz that is restrained and fluid and marked by intricate harmonic structures often lagging slightly behind the beat.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A fluid agent (gas or liquid) that produces cooling.
A cooling system that uses a fluid to transfer heat from one place to another.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “cool” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.