Cooling

How to spell cooling

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cooling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cooling mean?

1. adjectiveHaving the effect of lowering temperature or producing a pleasant sense of coolness.
2. nounThe process or act of lowering temperature, or of something becoming less warm.

Cooling in a sentence

• adjective

  A cooling breeze drifted through the open office windows.

• noun

  The engine relies on liquid cooling to prevent overheating.

• adjective

  She applied a cooling gel to the sunburn on her shoulders.

• noun

  Rapid cooling of the metal caused it to crack.

Where does cooling come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the adjective and verb 'cool', which descends from the Old English 'col', meaning moderately cold or not warm. That word belonged to the same Germanic family as the Dutch 'koel' and the German 'kuhl', and it is closely related to the word 'cold' itself, all reaching back to a shared root meaning chilly. The '-ing' ending is the native English suffix that turns a verb into a present participle, a gerund (a noun naming the action), or a descriptive adjective. So 'cooling' simply names or describes the act of making or becoming less warm, a sense it has carried steadily since the verb developed in early Middle English. The spelling is regular: the double 'o' was settled long ago, and the only thing to remember is that a single 'l' is kept before '-ing' because the stress and the long vowel leave nothing to double.

How the word is built

• cool (Old English col: not warm)
• -ing (forming a present participle, gerund, or adjective)