Word.ws English Dictionary

dirty coal

dirty coal noun: lignite.

Noun

dirty coal (uncountable)

  1. (informal) lignite
    • Lignite's nickname “dirty coal,” suggests its one major drawback, but its allure is clearly its cost. Lignite is cheaper than most other energy sources.1978 February 14, “Texas Turning to Its Reserves of Lignite”, in New York Times

Origin of dirty coal

Due to the smell it gives off when burned.

Questions about dirty coal

What does dirty coal mean?
Dirty coal means lignite.
What part of speech is dirty coal?
Dirty coal is a noun.

Words near dirty coal in the dictionary

  1. dirty bulk
  2. dirty bulking
  3. dirty business
  4. dirty chai
  5. dirty chais
  6. dirty coal
  7. dirty code
  8. Dirty Creek
  9. dirty dairying
  10. dirty dance
  11. dirty danced

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dirty coal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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