Charcoal

How to spell charcoal

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce charcoal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does charcoal mean?

1. nounA black, porous form of carbon made by burning wood slowly with limited air, used as a fuel.
2. nounA stick of burnt wood used for drawing and sketching.
3. nounA very dark grey colour resembling burnt wood.

Charcoal in a sentence

• He poured a bag of charcoal into the barbecue before lighting it.

• The artist smudged the charcoal with her thumb to soften the shadows.

• She chose a suit in charcoal rather than plain black.

• The charcoal glowed red once the flames had died down.

• Life-drawing classes often begin with quick studies in charcoal.

• The walls were painted a deep charcoal to make the room feel cosy.

Where does charcoal come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word charcoal appears in English in the Middle Ages, around the 1300s, and is a compound whose second half is plainly the familiar word 'coal'. The first element, 'char', is the genuinely tricky part: scholars are not certain of its source, but it is usually linked to an Old English verb meaning 'to turn' (the same root that gives us 'chore' and the older sense of work that comes round again), the idea being wood that has been turned or worked into coal by fire. Another suggestion connects it to 'coal' itself, with the second 'coal' added once the first element stopped being understood. The modern sense of 'char', meaning to scorch or burn the surface of something, actually grew out of the noun 'charcoal' rather than the other way round, which is a neat reversal. By extension the word also names the dark grey artists' drawing stick and the deep grey colour, since both come from the burnt residue. The spelling stays simple once you remember it is just two everyday words, char plus coal, joined together with no doubled letters.

How the word is built

• char (to scorch or burn, from Old English cerran/related to turning and burning)
• coal (a combustible black material)