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:
Of course, I have to pay a cleaning fee, but just in two nights, I’m a few hundred short of paying my mortgage, so that was really cool.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
"Let's keep posting. Don't let the heat of discussion cool down," reads a comment on Weibo.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Most recently, Qatar has floated the idea of a new 10-day ceasefire and an end to restrictions on shipping in the strait as an interim measure to cool tensions, the Journal reported.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
The agency has issued heatstroke alerts in 41 out of Japan's 47 prefectures, urging the public -- especially the many elderly -- to take steps to stay cool.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
We head outside, where the air is cool even though it’s supposed to be hot later on.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
UK species are adapted to our historically cooler climate - with fat, furry bodies that help them retain heat and powerful flight muscles that warm them as they fly.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
The graphite cubes in the cap soak up water and spread it across a larger surface area than your forehead so it evaporates faster, making you feel cooler, according to research.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
“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 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
Jack carries the cooler we brought, filled with cut veggies and sandwiches and juice boxes, and starts to transfer everything over to the fridge.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
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
Navigation apps might point out the coolest commutes as well as the fastest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
He noted that he wanted his Futurecave to become “the coolest house ever built.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
A glamour game against the undisputed icons of the sport, staged in one of the coolest cities on the planet.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
It was the coolest thing he had ever seen.
From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
The molten material cools into glass, preserving chemical and chronological clues that scientists can use to estimate when the impact occurred.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026
Inside a climate-controlled chamber, a standard fridge is fitted with sensors and filled with gel blocks to measure how evenly it cools.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 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
As the water on the surface cools, it begins to condense, and individual ice crystals act as seeds, causing the water to congeal around them, squeezing the salt out into the water below.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
The eurozone’s annual rate of inflation fell to 2.8% from 3.2%, while in the U.S. the pace of price rises cooled to 3.5% from 4.2%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
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
To investigate this idea experimentally, Professor Barontini created a simplified quantum "universe" using a cloud of 24,000 ultracold atoms cooled to just a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
They backtracked and camped in the actual road and when they went on in the morning the macadam had cooled.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
This weather phenomenon "could affect electricity demand" by increasing cooling needs and limiting hydropower and wind power generation, the IEA said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Still, with food and services inflation cooling, the BOE doesn’t look likely to hike rates any time soon, he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● 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
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
It was nice sitting there, just the two of them, in the cooling darkness.
From "The Lemonade War" by Jacqueline Davies
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.