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# charcoal

«charcoal» in Mova's school dictionary: **a black, light material made by burning wood slowly with…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (charcoal, uncountable; a charcoal = a stick for drawing, charcoals); adjective (charcoal grey)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Charcoal is a black, light material made by burning wood slowly with very little air; it burns hot and is used as fuel for barbecues. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#m1)

2) A charcoal is a stick of this material used for drawing, or a drawing made with it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#m2)

3) Charcoal, or charcoal grey, is a very dark grey colour. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday life charcoal is barbecue fuel; in art lessons it makes soft dark lines that smudge; in science it is an example of carbon and of a chemical change (wood heated without enough oxygen). Safety: hot charcoal stays hot for hours, and burning charcoal indoors gives off carbon monoxide, a deadly gas. Phrases: charcoal briquettes, charcoal drawing, charcoal grey, activated charcoal.

### examples

- Dad lit the charcoal for the barbecue. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#x1)
- We drew the bowl of fruit with charcoal in art class. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#x2)
- The charcoal smudged when I touched it with my finger. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#x3)
- Never bring a charcoal grill into a tent or a house. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#x4)
- Charcoal is mostly carbon. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#x5)
- She wore a charcoal grey coat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#x6)
- The coals were glowing red under a layer of white ash. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#x7)
- Activated charcoal is used in some water filters. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/#x8)

### note

Usually uncountable (some charcoal, a bag of charcoal); countable only for drawing sticks or drawings (two charcoals). Charcoal is not the same as coal: coal is dug out of the ground, charcoal is made from wood. Trap: charcoal can look cold and grey but still be very hot inside.

### In the corpora

- [Wood gives off gases that burn with flames; charcoal has already had its gases driven off, so it glows instead.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/11-the-candle-and-burning/15/)
- [Burning charcoal gives off carbon monoxide, an invisible poisonous gas, so barbecues must never be brought indoors or into a tent.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/11-the-candle-and-burning/16/)
- [Oil mattered little before the 1800s, when the main fuels were wood, charcoal and, later, coal.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/27-resources-and-what-countries-trade/13/)
- [Smelting heats ore with fuel such as charcoal or coke (a fuel made from coal) to free the metal.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/60-metals-mining-and-what-they-cost/9/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «charcoal» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/charcoal/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.