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Contents
coal definition
Overview
This page has 14 definitions of coal in English. Coal is a noun and verb. Examples of how to use coal in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .
English
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 Old Irish gúal (“coal”), Lithuanian žvìlti (“to twinkle, glow”), Persian زغال (zoğâl, “live coal”), Sanskrit ज्वल् (jval, “to burn, glow”), Tocharian B śoliye (“hearth”), all from the same root.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kəʊl/, [kʰɒʊɫ]
- (New Zealand, General Australian) IPA(key): /kɐʉl/, [kʰɒʊɫ]
- (General American) IPA(key): /koʊl/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -əʊl
- Homophones: cole, kohl
Noun
coal (countable and uncountable, plural coals)
- (uncountable) A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.
- 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.
- (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.
- See also: stockpile
- Put some coal on the fire.
- Order some coal from the coalyard.
- (countable) A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)
- Put some coals on the fire.
- (countable) A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.
- Charcoal.
Hyponyms
- anthracite
- bituminous coal
- brown coal
- charcoal
- lignite
- seacoal, sea coal
- soft coal
Derived terms
- bituminous coal, soft coal
- Bovey coal
- brown coal
- channel coal
- coal ball
- coal bed
- coal black
- coalboy
- Coal County
- coal cracker
- coalfield
- coal-fired, coalfired
- coal fungus (Daldinia concentrica)
- coal gas
- Coalgate
- coal hole
- coal merchant
- coalmine, coal mine
- coal oil
- coal pusher
- coals to Newcastle
- coal tar
- coal tit (Periparus ater)
- coal train
- Coalville
- coking coal
- hard coal (see: anthracite)
- white coal
Descendants
- → Hausa: kwal
Related terms
See also
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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Verb
coal (third-person singular simple present coals, present participle coaling, simple past and past participle coaled)
- (intransitive) To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships).
- 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
- The light shook and splintered in the puddles. A red glare came from an outward-bound steamer that was coaling.
- 1863, Colonial Secretary to Commander Baldwin, USN
- shortly after that she coaled again at Simon's Bay; and that after remaining in the neighbourhood of our ports for a time, she proceeded to Mauritius, where she coaled again, and then returned to this colony.
- (transitive) To supply with coal.
- to coal a steamer
- January 1917, National Geographic Magazine, Volume 31 Number 1, One Hundred British Seaports
- Cruisers may be coaled at sea and provided with ammunition openly. The submarine may not
- (intransitive) To be converted to charcoal.
- 2014, Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel, Farming the Woods
- After the initial burn the goal of any good fire should be coaling; that is, creating a bed of solid coals that will sustain the fire.
- 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 18:
- As a result, particles of wood and twigs insufficiently coaled are frequently found at the bottom of such pits.
- 2014, Ken Mudge and Steve Gabriel, Farming the Woods
- (transitive) To burn to charcoal; to char.
- 1622, Francis Bacon, Natural History
- Char-coal of roots, coaled into great pieces.
- 1622, Francis Bacon, Natural History
- (transitive) To mark or delineate with charcoal.
- 1551, William Camden, Remains concerning Britain:
- […] marvailing, he coaled out these rithms upon the wall near to the picture
References
coal in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.