Coolant

How to spell coolant

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce coolant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does coolant mean?

1. nounA fluid that circulates through an engine or machine to absorb and remove excess heat.

Coolant in a sentence

• The mechanic topped up the coolant before the long drive.

• A leak in the radiator let the coolant drain onto the garage floor.

Where does coolant come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a relatively modern English coinage, built straightforwardly from the native adjective 'cool' plus the suffix '-ant'. The base word descends from Old English 'col', meaning cold or moderately chilly, which goes back to a Germanic root also behind the word 'cold' itself. The suffix '-ant' comes through French from the Latin present participle ending '-antem', which marks a thing that performs an action, so a coolant is literally 'something that cools'. The word appeared in the early twentieth century alongside the rise of internal combustion engines and industrial machinery that needed a circulating fluid to carry heat away. Because it is assembled from a familiar English word and a common suffix, its spelling is regular: the only point to watch is the ending, which is '-ant' rather than the equally common '-ent' seen in words like 'solvent'.

How the word is built

• cool (from Old English col: cold, calm)
• -ant (noun suffix naming a substance that performs an action)