coal
/kəʊl/noun, verb, adjective
coal is spelled C-O-A-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 31 times per million words in written English, the 3,052nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, coal means “A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of coal is coals.
How many letters and syllables are in coal?
| Letters | 4: C-O-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 31 times per million words; the 3,052nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is coal?
Coal appears 31 times per million words in written English, the 3,052nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce coal?
- UK /kəʊl/
- UK [kʰɒʊɫ]
- /kɒl/
Coal has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-coal.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with coal
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: cole, kohl (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: cole.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with coal?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as coal from its last stressed vowel (/əʊl/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: cola, alco.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of coal
- coals plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- coaling participle, present
- coaled participle, past
- coalest rare, superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does coal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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.
- 2
A type of coal, such as bituminous, anthracite, or lignite, and grades and varieties thereof, as a fuel commodity ready to buy and burn.
Put some coal on the fire.
- 3
A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)
Put some coals on the fire.
- 4
A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.
hot coals
- 5
Charcoal.
- 6
Content of low quality.
I'm so sick of seeing this coal online.
- 7
slangBombs emitting black smoke on impact.
- 8
obsoleteslangMoney.
verb
- 1
To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives).
- 2
To supply with coal.
to coal a steamer
- 3
To be converted to charcoal.
- 4
To burn to charcoal; to char.
- 5
To mark or delineate with charcoal.
adjective
- 1
Black like coal; coal-black.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Coal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | charbon, houille , tisons |
| German | Kohle, Steinkohle, kuin |
| Portuguese | carvão , brasa , hulha |
| Spanish | carbón, hulla , brasa |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does coal come from?
From Middle English col, from Old English col, from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą (“coal”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵwelH- (“to burn, shine”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).