coal

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A hard black rock that is burned as fuel for heat and energy.

   The factory still burns coal to generate electricity.

2. 2
   noun

   A glowing or burnt piece of coal or wood in a fire.

   We cooked the meat over the hot coals.

Common collocations

• bituminous coal Adjective + noun
• coal miner Noun + noun
• coal seam Noun + noun
• coal tar Noun + noun

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, “l…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images