cool
Americanadjective
-
cooler,
comparative
-
coolest
superlative
-
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)
-
cools,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cooled,
past participle, past
-
cooling
present participle
-
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)
-
cools,
present (3rd person singular)
-
cooled,
past participle, past
-
cooling
present participle
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 cลl; cognate with Middle Low German kลl, Old High German kuoli, German kรผhl; 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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com โ one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Visual Arts - Introductory
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more โ and it's all completely free to use!
Visual Arts - High School
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com โ we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Nvidia’s report quelled fears that growth in chip demand would cool in the coming months.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Aug. 27, 2026
The amount of water data centres consume can change based on size, design and local climate - the hotter the area the more water needed to cool the equipment.
From BBC โ Aug. 27, 2026
The figure cannot be read as meaning El Ninos themselves are 36 percent stronger, because it measures the variability of the whole ocean-atmosphere system, in both the warm and cool directions.
From Barron's โ Aug. 27, 2026
Inflation is forecast to cool slightly to 2.7% overall in 2026 and then 2.3% in 2027.
From MarketWatch โ Aug. 27, 2026
All I had to do was open my window and slip out into the cool of the night.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
I felt even cooler holding my sword, knees bent, feet wide, ready and waiting in my “advance” stance.
From Los Angeles Times โ Aug. 24, 2026
And it’s been broiling along the coast, which typically offers a cooler respite from the heat.
From Los Angeles Times โ Aug. 24, 2026
"I can't think of a cooler setting when you're looking at the Capitol in the background," said Zak Brown, chief executive officer of McLaren Racing.
From Barron's โ Aug. 22, 2026
When the BBC visit Baeli on the hottest day of this summer's fourth heatwave, her house is 10C cooler than outside.
From BBC โ Aug. 21, 2026
Onions were best gathered in the cooler morning, but if Zvezda kept delaying her, it would be midday before she finished.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
Among the more popular indicators monitored by Wall Street’s technical strategists, the “Hindenburg Omen” definitely has the coolest name.
From MarketWatch โ Aug. 15, 2026
"It's the best film for that market and it's the coolest festival so we're very excited about it."
From BBC โ Aug. 14, 2026
He’d been a regular on “Hollywood Squares,” a frequent guest on “The Tonight Show,” and — most influentially — one of the decade’s coolest make-believe cops.
From Los Angeles Times โ Jul. 30, 2026
What’s the coolest thing at home in Brooklyn?
From The Wall Street Journal โ Jul. 28, 2026
I thought it was the coolest thing, until she cried, “Don't touch my hair!”
From "I Will Always Write Back" by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda
Even as the labor market cools, there’s still momentum when it comes to hiring for AI-related roles, and younger generations are the ones benefiting, LinkedIn says.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Aug. 18, 2026
While this supports economic activity, if and when the rally cools, households will be obliged to save more.
From MarketWatch โ Aug. 17, 2026
It was built with an air-to-air heat pump that cools the building, and vents to let hot air escape.
From BBC โ Aug. 3, 2026
"I have a daughter -- we don't go outside until it cools down a bit, because the current temperatures are unbearable," she said.
From Barron's โ Jul. 31, 2026
After a few seconds, Venkat followed behind, saying, "I'll make sure he cools off."
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
In Gedik's laboratory, they cooled the samples to roughly -230 degrees Celsius, cold enough for both charge density waves to exist simultaneously in the checkerboard pattern.
From Science Daily โ Aug. 20, 2026
Moderna fell 24% as investors cooled on Wednesday’s historic rally, with analysts pointing to a short squeeze as a major driver of the original surge.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Aug. 20, 2026
“We want you to become slightly more cautious because positive EPS estimate revision momentum has cooled somewhat,” Nick Raich of the Earnings Scout wrote in a recent research note.
From MarketWatch โ Aug. 19, 2026
Headline inflation cooled to 15.4 percent in July.
From Barron's โ Aug. 19, 2026
Outside the dark air had cooled so that there was a chill in the room.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
Solstice said at the time the transaction would accelerate its strategy to build an advanced-materials platform with increased exposure to high-growth electronics, AI infrastructure, thermal management, data-center cooling applications and other specialty markets.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Aug. 27, 2026
So, for example, with the PCE data, he expects it will endorse his view that inflation pressures are cooling.
From MarketWatch โ Aug. 26, 2026
Once the ice sheet began expanding, additional climate feedbacks strengthened the cooling.
From Science Daily โ Aug. 25, 2026
Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary all had to shut down or curtail nuclear power plants because the Danube was too low to provide cooling.
From Barron's โ Aug. 25, 2026
I draw my breath in deeply and drink in the cooling air.
From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, ยฉ Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritageยฎ Idioms Dictionary copyright ยฉ 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
