cool
Americanadjective
-
moderately cold; neither warm nor cold.
a rather cool evening.
- Antonyms:
- warm
-
feeling comfortably or moderately cold.
I'm perfectly cool, but open the window if you feel hot.
-
imparting a sensation of moderate coldness or comfortable freedom from heat.
a cool breeze.
- Antonyms:
- warm
-
permitting such a sensation.
a cool dress.
- Antonyms:
- warm
-
not excited; calm; composed; under control.
to remain cool in the face of disaster.
- Synonyms:
- quiet, placid, unruffled, self-possessed, collected
-
not hasty; deliberate.
a cool and calculated action.
-
lacking in interest or enthusiasm.
a cool reply to an invitation.
- Antonyms:
- warm
-
lacking in warmth or cordiality.
a cool reception.
- Antonyms:
- warm
-
calmly audacious or impudent.
a cool lie.
-
aloof or unresponsive; indifferent.
He was cool to her passionate advances.
-
unaffected by emotions; disinterested; dispassionate.
She made a cool appraisal of all the issues in the dispute.
-
Informal. (of a number or sum) without exaggeration or qualification.
a cool million dollars.
-
(of colors) with green, blue, or violet predominating.
-
Slang.
-
great; fine; excellent.
a real cool comic.
-
characterized by great facility; highly skilled or clever.
cool maneuvers on the parallel bars.
-
socially adept.
It's not cool to arrive at a party too early.
-
acceptable; satisfactory; okay.
If you want to stay late, that's cool.
-
adverb
interjection
noun
-
something that is cool; a cool part, place, time, etc..
in the cool of the evening.
-
coolness.
-
calmness; composure; poise.
an executive noted for maintaining her cool under pressure.
verb (used without object)
-
to become cool (sometimes followed by down oroff ).
The soup cooled in five minutes. We cooled off in the mountain stream.
-
to become less ardent, cordial, etc.; become moderate.
verb (used with object)
verb phrase
-
cool off to become calmer or more reasonable.
Wait until he cools off before you talk to him again.
-
cool down. see cooldown.
-
cool out to calm or settle down; relax.
cooling out at the beach.
adjective
-
moderately cold
a cool day
-
comfortably free of heat
a cool room
-
producing a pleasant feeling of coldness
a cool shirt
-
able to conceal emotion; calm
a cool head
-
lacking in enthusiasm, affection, cordiality, etc
a cool welcome
-
calmly audacious or impudent
-
informal (esp of numbers, sums of money, etc) without exaggeration; actual
a cool ten thousand
-
(of a colour) having violet, blue, or green predominating; cold
-
(of jazz) characteristic of the late 1940s and early 1950s, economical and rhythmically relaxed
-
informal sophisticated or elegant, esp in an unruffled way
-
informal excellent; marvellous
adverb
noun
-
coolness
the cool of the evening
-
slang calmness; composure (esp in the phrases keep or lose one's cool )
-
slang unruffled elegance or sophistication
verb
-
to make or become cooler
-
to lessen the intensity of (anger or excitement) or (of anger or excitement) to become less intense; calm down
-
slang (usually imperative) to calm down; take it easy
-
to wait or be kept waiting
Synonym Usage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
coolingnessnoun
-
coolnessnoun
-
overcoolnessnoun
-
recoolverb
-
subcoolverb (used with object)
-
coolishadjective
-
overcooladjective
-
ultracooladjective
-
uncooledadjective
-
well-cooledadjective
-
coolinglyadverb
-
coollyadverb
-
overcoollyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
coolsimple
-
coolssimple
-
have cooledperfect
-
has cooledperfect
-
am coolingprogressive
-
are coolingprogressive
-
is coolingprogressive
-
have been coolingperfect progressive
-
has been coolingperfect progressive
Past
-
cooledsimple
-
had cooledperfect
-
was coolingprogressive
-
were coolingprogressive
-
had been coolingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cool
First recorded before 1000; Middle English col, coul, Old English cōl; cognate with Middle Low German kōl, Old High German kuoli, German kühl; see cold, chill
Explanation
When the weather is cool, it's not quite cold but not warm either. When people are cool, they're mellow and in control. Cool has many meanings. When the weather goes from 70 degrees to 50, it cooled off. A winning pool player who starts losing also cools off. Drinking lemonade on a hot day is yet another way to cool off. When you lose your temper, you lose your cool. Hot cookies should cool before you eat them. Something fashionable is cool, but if you're cool to an idea, you're not so sure about it. Any situation that becomes less intense has cooled.
Vocabulary lists containing cool
Words for Cheese Writers
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Visual Arts - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A thick early morning marine layer on Saturday in Huntington Beach left players, coaches and fans arriving for the Battle at the Beach seven-on-seven passing tournament feeling cool and energized.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
“It would have been cool to go there,” Hernandez said, “but I’m happy with where I’m at with the Pirates.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Steele said the team was "literally on their knees" and had to put their feet in ice blocks just to cool off.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Exeter paramedics Connor Gilronan and Charlotte Sherston give him medication and oxygen, and remind him to stay cool and hydrated.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
I remember feeling it was so cool that he knew I liked red Cobras.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
Power-sector demand will start the week lower with heat in the south dissipating and Texas even trending toward cooler than normal for mid-July, he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
When the temperature difference diminishes between the warmer western Pacific and the cooler eastern Pacific, the typical east-to-west trade winds decrease even further.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Jay Ternavan, founder of JayWay Travel, said more Americans are interested in summer vacations to Scandinavia, where temperatures are cooler.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Temperatures will be 23 or 24C at best but eastern Scotland will be cooler.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
“Let’s go,” I said, as she picked through the bottles of Mexican fruit pop in the beverage cooler.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Limelight was the coolest, but I loved Tunnel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Apps can show commuters the coolest way to work, not just the fastest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
He noted that he wanted his Futurecave to become “the coolest house ever built.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
The builders are also adding sleek glass panels and internal office space to craft the “sexiest, coolest construction posting in America,” according to Paul Palandjian, the CEO of O’Leary Digital.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2026
The costume room backstage in the playhouse is the coolest thing ever.
From "Shouting at the Rain" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Even when using the same mold, color can vary from batch to batch, and how it cools also affects the result.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Analysts at 22V Research said in a recent report that the valuation gap should narrow a bit going forward as they expect longer term bond yields to slide as the economy cools slightly.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
During hot weather our body controls our internal temperature by sweating and as the sweat is evaporated from our skin, it cools the air directly next to us, making us feel cooler.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
As this nuclear fireball grows, it mixes with the surrounding atmosphere, cools, and eventually condenses into tiny solid particles that become nuclear fallout.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2026
“I like the cold. I like to feel the fresh air on my face. It cools me. This place is rather overheated. I think it is a dreadful waste of money.”
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
Ducted air con: These systems are designed to serve the entire home, with a central unit pushing cooled air through a network of ducting, with vents in each room.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
If those nucleation sites are absent, water can remain liquid even after it has been cooled below its normal freezing point.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026
When players cooled themselves with cold drinks and icy towels during short breaks and took longer halftimes, their core temperatures and cardiovascular strain lowered considerably more than they did after only passive breaks, Brown wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
For now, the temporary deal saw a pause in hostilities while officials seek a longer term solution, and energy costs have cooled.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
The windows weren’t glassed in at the rear of the streetcar, and the wind cooled my face as we screeched and clanged through streets teeming with motorcars and pedestrians.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Even if the visible damage is limited to the hood, radiator and front bumper, there may be damage to other parts, including the cooling system, headlights, sensors and other important elements.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
These include solid state electronic cooling systems with no moving parts, devices that convert heat into electricity, chip based electronics, and cogeneration systems that capture and reuse waste heat from industrial processes.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
"What we have in front of us is 160 cooling towers across this region that we are looking at, and we are not waiting," he said, according to ABC News, external.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
"Extreme" is the highest level on the NWS's HeatRisk scale, with impacts affecting anyone without cooling or hydration.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
Behind those medieval walls lay the bodies of a million insects, and under its floors the cooling corpses of spiders and mice.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
