coal
Plural: coals
Noun
- fossil fuel consisting of carbonized vegetable matter deposited in the Carboniferous period
- a hot fragment of wood or coal that is left from a fire and is glowing or smoldering
- A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.
- 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.
- A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)
- A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.
- Charcoal.
- Content of low quality.
- Bombs emitting black smoke on impact.
- Money.
Verb
Verb Forms: coaled, coaling, coals
- To supply or provide with coal as fuel.
- burn to charcoal
- supply with coal
- take in coal
- "The big ship coaled"
- To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives).
- To supply with coal.
- To be converted to charcoal.
- To burn to charcoal; to char.
- To mark or delineate with charcoal.
Adj
- Black like coal; coal-black.
Examples
- glowing coals
- He decided to COAL his strategy by hoarding consonants for later powerful plays.
- hot coals
- I'm so sick of seeing this left-wing coal online.
- 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.
- Order some coal from the coalyard.
- Put some coal on the fire.
- Put some coals on the fire.
- 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.
- to coal a steamer
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English cole, from Old English col, from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą (compare West Frisian koal, Dutch kool, German Kohle, Danish kul), from *ǵwelH- (“to burn, shine”). 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.
Scrabble Score: 6
coal: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordcoal: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
coal: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary