Word.ws English Dictionary

kewl

/kuːl/

kewl is the nonstandard spelling of cool.

Meaning of cool

Adjective

cool (comparative cooler, superlative coolest)

  1. Of a mildly low temperature.
    • I like cool weather the most 'cause it's not too hot to wear a jacket but I won't be too cold in my shorts.
    Synonyms:
    chilly
    Antonyms:
    lukewarm, tepid, warm
  2. Allowing or suggesting heat relief.
    • Linen has made cool and breathable clothing for millennia.
  3. Of a color, in the range of violet to green.
    • If you have a reddish complexion, you should mainly wear cool colors.
    Antonyms:
    warm
  4. Not showing emotion; calm and in control of oneself.
    • Be cool. There's no need to panic.
    Antonyms:
    passionate
  5. Unenthusiastic; lukewarm; skeptical.
    • His proposals had a cool reception.
    Synonyms:
    chilly, lukewarm, tepid
    Antonyms:
    warm
  6. (obsolete) Calmly audacious.
    • Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Hester at her Needle”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC

See all 26 meanings of cool

Forms of kewl

comparativekewler
superlativekewlest

Origin of kewl

Respelling of cool to represent a pronunciation with fronting of /u/ to [ʉ], which is characteristic of California English among other accents.

Words formed from kewl

Words that rhyme with kewl

42 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about kewl

What is kewl the nonstandard spelling of?
Kewl is the nonstandard spelling of cool.
How do you pronounce kewl?
Kewl is pronounced /kuːl/.

Words near kewl in the dictionary

  1. Keweenawan
  2. keweenawite
  3. Kewell
  4. kewick
  5. kewicks
  6. kewl
  7. kewl beans
  8. kewler
  9. kewlest
  10. kewlness
  11. kewpie

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kewl (page history and authors); cool (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kewl.wav.

Cite this entry: “kewl.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kewl. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.