Definition of "coal" []

• A natural dark brown to black graphitelike material used as a fuel, formed from fossilized plants and consisting of amorphous carbon with various organic and some inorganic compounds. (noun)
• A piece of this substance. (noun)
• A glowing or charred piece of solid fuel. (noun)
• Charcoal. (noun)
• To burn (a combustible solid) to a charcoal residue. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Other health hazards specific to underground coal mining include coal dust, which can cause ‘coal worker’s pneumoconiosis’ or anthracosis, often combined with silicosis."
• "For let me tell you, all you demobilised wallahs who know only those countries where the necessities of life were matters of private enterprise -- let me tell you that in this village, if I say that I require coal, _coal is here_, and with it the Bürgermeister inquiring politely if my needs are satisfied."
• "There are gradations from bituminous coal into _anthracite coal_."