noun / verb
coal
KOHL/kəʊl/
A carbon-rich fuel mined from the ground.
Black lumps of coal sit beside the glowing stove.
Etymology
Old English col named charcoal or a burning or burned piece of combustible material. The word later extended to the combustible mineral, carrying a name for burning fuel over to the rock.
In context
a piece of organic sedimentary rock which is coal as you can see my hands are getting all black and this is a property of good quality coal
More examples
- Miners extract coal from deep underground.
- She shovels coal into the furnace.
- At the railway museum, workers coal the locomotive before each trip.
Forms
coal · coals · coaled · coaling
coalfield noun — An area containing underground coal deposits.
Similar words
- anthracite
- A hard type of coal with especially high carbon content.
- lignite
- A softer, brown coal with lower heat output.