Cool

How to spell cool

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cool

What does cool mean?

1. adjectiveModerately cold; pleasantly low in temperature.
2. adjectiveCalm, unexcited, and in control of one's emotions.
3. verbTo make or become less hot.
4. adjectiveFashionable, impressive, or admirable in an informal sense.

Cool in a sentence

• adjective

  The evening air felt cool after the heat of the day.

• adjective

  He stayed remarkably cool during the heated meeting.

• verb

  Let the soup cool before you taste it.

• adjective

  The new design studio looked effortlessly cool and modern.

• adjective

  She stored the medicine in a cool cupboard away from the sun.

• adjective

  Keeping a cool head helped her finish the interview well.

Where does cool come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English col, meaning moderately cold, and ultimately from a Germanic root shared with the modern Dutch koel and German kuhl. That same root also gave English the verb 'to chill' through its relatives and links closely to the word 'cold', since both grew from a common ancestor meaning a low but bearable temperature. From early times the word carried a figurative sense too, describing a calm, unexcited temperament, which is why we still speak of keeping a cool head. The now familiar slang meaning of fashionable or impressive blossomed in twentieth century American culture, especially through jazz musicians, before spreading worldwide. The spelling is mercifully regular, the double o simply marking the long vowel that the word has carried for over a thousand years.

How the word is built

• cool (from Old English col, meaning moderately cold); a single native root with no affixes