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• cologne
  cologne

  noun

  a mildly perfumed toilet water; eau de Cologne.
• Cologne
  Cologne

  noun

  a city in W Germany.

cologne

¹ American  

[kuh-lohn] / kəˈloʊn /

noun

• colognes
  plural

1. a mildly perfumed toilet water; eau de Cologne.

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Cologne ² American  

[kuh-lohn] / kəˈloʊn /

noun

1. a city in W Germany.

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Cologne ¹ British  

/ kəˈləʊn /

noun

1. German name: Köln. an industrial city and river port in W Germany, in North Rhine-Westphalia on the Rhine: important commercially since ancient times; university (1388). Pop: 965 954 (2003 est)

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cologne ² British  

/ kəˈləʊn /

noun

1. Also called: Cologne water, eau de Cologne. a perfumed liquid or solid made of fragrant essential oils and alcohol

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Cologne Cultural  

1. City in western Germany on the Rhine River; a commercial center.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cologned
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• colognes
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of cologne

Short for Cologne water, made in Cologne since 1709

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Explanation

Cologne is a type of perfume, a liquid that smells good and is meant to be dabbed behind your ears. When you get dressed up for a night on the town, you might be sure to put some cologne on your neck. Both men and women wear cologne, which is scented with extracts or oils in a base of alcohol and water. Cologne is considered a kind of toilet water, which is less concentrated than perfume — and can be applied more liberally. If you've ever stood in an elevator with a man wearing an excessive amount of cologne, you know there can be too much of a good thing. The word is from the French eau de Cologne, "water from Cologne (Germany)."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cologne Cologne colognes

“Nobody was cooler than Barry — the hair, the suits, the laugh, the cigar, a cologne that I assume somebody somewhere made just for him,” Van Pelt said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

“Final thoughts,” he tells any young man watching, “Just get any cheap knockoff cologne, use crystals, try taking a shower, I don’t know.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026

He sprayed Sharaa with Trump-branded cologne, before presenting him with his own supply to take home for his wife, jokingly asking him how many he has.

From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2025

By acquiring Kering’s beauty business, L’Oréal would add cologne maker Creed to its portfolio.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2025

And he wears so much cologne I literally gag whenever I’m near him.

From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh

To reach gaming fans, Lego in August showed up at the Gamescom trade event in Cologne, Germany, with a giant Minecraft Lego chicken that visitors could sit on.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026

The findings come from a study conducted by researchers at the University of Cologne, the University of Oxford, the University of Liège, and Cape Breton University in Canada.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026

A global shift toward nonalcoholic drinks — driven by greater health consciousness from California to Cologne and beyond — has reached even the world’s biggest celebration of beer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026

This means the Rhine has effectively been split into two sections, Thomas Puls, a transport expert from the IW Economic Institute in Cologne told AFP.

From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026

They sailed around for awhile and traipsed through various countries till they stopped in Cologne where the chief of the Huns asked Ursula to marry him.

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt

Mr. Rabanne became known in the 1970s for colognes, handbags and ready-to-wear fashion that made him familiar to department-store consumers around the world.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 3, 2023

That’s probably because Calone is employed as an ingredient in a vast array of colognes and perfumes, including scents by Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Christian Dior.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2021

"When I started advertising, all of a sudden it became one of the best colognes out there. I was doing appearances; 15,000, 18,000, 20,000 people were showing up outside of Saks Fifth Avenue."

From Fox News ● Aug. 20, 2021

The film is brimming with clever, authentic-sounding radio advertisements for perfumes, colognes and tanning products.

From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2019

He goes shopping with her on Madison Avenue at stores they must be buzzed into, for cashmere cardigans and outrageously expensive English colognes that Maxine buys without deliberation or guilt.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

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