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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Visual Arts - High School
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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:
"Let's keep posting. Don't let the heat of discussion cool down," reads a comment on Weibo.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
I also steal a lot of cool phrases from my son.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Let cool before adding them to the soup.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
For decades, the way to stay cool while exercising was simple: wear less clothing and make what you did wear light and loose.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
“I guess I am,” I said, “but if you really want to do something for me, go and bring me about a gallon of good cool water.”
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
“And once it makes that transition from the warmer to the cooler waters, it’s going to fall apart rapidly. So really, it’s just the remnants that are moving forward.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
But at a moment when Fed officials are torn over whether higher interest rates are needed, even a slightly cooler inflation rate could sway their thinking.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
The slightly cooler spell may be very brief for some parts of southern England and south Wales, where we could see heatwave criteria being reached again later this week.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
But inflation data released after Waller spoke was cooler than expected, and markets have settled into a view that July is too soon for a hike.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
In a way, she still was, but behind that veneer, Koffi caught a glimpse of something else, something older and far cooler.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
This might well be the hottest summer of your lifetime, and also might be the coolest summer of the rest of your life.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
"It's really difficult knowing this year may be the coolest summer our daughter may ever experience," he says.
From BBC ● 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
Not only was this the first time a girl had ever given me her card, it was also, by far, the coolest contact card I had ever seen.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
The study illustrates that geoengineering cannot be judged solely by how much it cools the planet.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 3, 2026
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
Violet doesn’t care what color it is, so long as under their chins that avenue of no-question-about-it satin cools their lava forever.
From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison
Shares of SpaceX cooled in the ensuing weeks, but the company's valuation at around $1.5 trillion has been viewed as a potential means to transact a combination between SpaceX and Tesla.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Just before serving, pipe a generous swirl of citrus-whipped ricotta onto each cooled pastry.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
The figures depict a labor market that has cooled but remains steady.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Hot material consistently rose beneath the day side, flowed across the upper region, cooled as it reached the night side, then sank before returning through the lower mantle.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
Like the crystalline blue sky over their heads, and the gentle wind that cooled them, and the expanse of green lawns that he had known all his life.
From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Temperatures will be 8 to 12 degrees above normal, with muggy conditions limiting overnight cooling, said Kristan Lund, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Inflation data eased in June, cooling along with oil prices and the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
Now, the world’s biggest performance brands and a wave of smaller challengers are betting on a new approach: “active cooling technology”—fabrics, constructions and materials designed to lower the temperature at the skin’s surface.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Individual traders are increasingly funneling money into companies that make the chips, cooling systems and electric power that AI requires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
Once the article came out, a number of people who had been neutral threw their support behind the McCulloughs; some who had been on Bebe’s side found their passions cooling.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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.
