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
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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:
Not cool because it left her thesis hanging.
From Los Angeles Times โ Oct. 21, 2026
GM executives believe the company’s stock is fundamentally undervalued, even as auto sales cool.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Oct. 20, 2026
There’s something raggedly cool about AM versus the slicker products on the FM side.
From Slate โ Oct. 20, 2026
Bennu's boulder-covered surface appeared to contradict those earlier measurements, leaving researchers with a puzzling question: How could an asteroid covered in massive rocks cool so quickly?
From Science Daily โ Oct. 20, 2026
The air is cool, crisper than normal, but the ground isn’t wet, and her backyard is . . . not her backyard.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
A consensus of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected a slightly cooler reading of 3.4%.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Oct. 21, 2026
They’d like to offer just FM, the cooler, higher-quality successor.
From Slate โ Oct. 20, 2026
Dave Cooper, 60, spent the last 10 years in southern California before moving to the cooler climes of Dumfries and Galloway.
From BBC โ Oct. 19, 2026
La Nina years, when the central and eastern tropical Pacific is cooler than normal, were producing stronger effects than their rating suggested, and El Ninos weaker ones.
From Barron's โ Oct. 19, 2026
Around me, the blowing wind grew cooler, too cool for this time of year.
From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce
In the coolest of these stars, atmospheric material can reach densities of approximately 1 gram per cubic centimeter, comparable to water and millions of times denser than the Sun's visible surface, known as the photosphere.
From Science Daily โ Oct. 19, 2026
One of the reasons that he wanted to become a writer was that he just thought Rod Serling was the coolest guy on the planet.
From Salon โ Oct. 10, 2026
Driving "was the coolest stuff I got to do," she said.
From Barron's โ Oct. 8, 2026
“The dark silver lining,” Gonzalez, the heat-weary fan said in a nod to global warming, “is this might be the coolest October of the rest of our lives.”
From Los Angeles Times โ Oct. 4, 2026
When I wake up this morning, I find the coolest thing on my bed!
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
"The shark is now swimming outside the artificial channel, where the water is deeper ... making it less vulnerable to temperature changes as the weather cools and less likely to become trapped."
From Barron's โ Oct. 21, 2026
A premature New England panic cools with a Patriots victory in Buffalo.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Oct. 8, 2026
These rocks can form when magma cools underground or when volcanic material solidifies at the surface.
From Science Daily โ Sep. 30, 2026
As it rises, it expands and cools, allowing the moisture it carries to condense, forming large clouds.
From BBC โ Sep. 5, 2026
Keith cools down a moment and admits it.
From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
Measurements from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in 2007 indicated that the asteroid's surface warmed and cooled rapidly as it rotated through sunlight and darkness.
From Science Daily โ Oct. 20, 2026
The comments come ahead of a policy meeting at the RBA in early November, where bond traders had cooled on the prospect of a further rise in interest rates.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Oct. 20, 2026
While egg prices have dropped and bread has cooled slightly since January 2025, ground beef is up 22.5%.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Oct. 18, 2026
The situation reportedly had cooled by the time they went on the air.
From Los Angeles Times โ Oct. 15, 2026
He put on the pajamas, and after the milk had boiled and cooled he drank a cup of it, warm; I had boiled the cup, too.
From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. OโBrien
He added that power, cooling and electrical equipment were "somewhat of a limiting factor."
From Barron's โ Oct. 20, 2026
This extreme cooling halted further sublimation and helped maintain the pristine surface.
From Science Daily โ Oct. 20, 2026
In real life it is a warehouse of expensive computers, a power line, a cooling plant and a cable.
From MarketWatch โ Oct. 14, 2026
The huge pipeline due to come online will test Asia’s ability to supply the electricity needed for cooling and powering energy-intensive data centers.
From The Wall Street Journal โ Oct. 13, 2026
I asked for cooling drink, and the dear hand that gave it me was Joe’s.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
