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kohl

UK/kəʊl/US/koʊl/
nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Other forms: kohls

Kohl is a dark powder traditionally used to line the eyes. A line of kohl.

It has been used for at least five thousand years and appears on every Egyptian painting. The word kohl is the same one that gave English alcohol, through Arabic and alchemy.

Camila Zanon. · CC BY 2.0

Definitions of kohl

  1. 1nounkohlA dark powder traditionally used to line the eyes.C2

    “The kohl was applied with a stick rather than a pencil.”

kohl is a cosmetic.

Where it comes from

Arabic kuhl named powdered antimony; through alchemy the same word gave English alcohol.

  1. Arabic

    كُحْل — antimony; kohl, stibnite (powdered antimony)

  2. English, today

    kohl

From Arabic كُحْل (“antimony; kohl, stibnite (powdered antimony)”). a doublet of alcohol and alcool.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Beauty & Cosmetics

Practise this word

kohl in the wild

  • Modern kohl formulations often contain galena (lead sulfide), and in some cases charcoal or other pigments.

    Kohl (cosmetics)

  • Several studies have questioned the safety of kohl out of fear of lead poisoning.

    Kohl (cosmetics)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.