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soot

soot

34 2.5
A black powder that forms when wood or coal burns and collects on surfaces
  • noun
  • /sʊt/
: hollín
  • To clean the walls, we had to scrub away the soot that had collected from the fireplace.
  • black soot
  • smoke and soot
  • ash and soot

And all of this soot gets lofted into the air.

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Examples

  • Just the soot, that particulate matter coming from coal plants, kills more than 10,000 Americans every year.

  • The impact plume and soot from the wildfires blocked out the sun.

  • Will it get all the soot off my hands?

  • You got a little soot in your eye.

  • By the time I noticed a bit of soot on it, it was already clean.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • And all of this soot gets lofted into the air.

  • It was covered under all this soot and smoke.

  • New York City was enveloped in a cloud of smoke, soot, and toxic ash.

    Academic text (2003)
  • Soot is merely carbon residue from coal and wood.

  • In future rocks, people's penchant for burning coal, oil and natural gas has spread tiny bits of soot all over the planet.

Synonyms

grime
vssoot
17 2.3

Dirt and soot that make a surface look dirty

is more specific raw carbon powder formed by incomplete burning on surfaces
lampblack
vssoot
  • Specialized
1 9.8

A very fine black powder made from soot used for ink and paint

is raw powdery residue from incomplete burning that collects on surfaces
smut
vssoot
  • Archaic
1 9.8

A black powder used to make ink or paint

is the same unprocessed residue formed by incomplete burning on surfaces

Compounds

1 4.9

A very dark color like the black dust from a fire

1 5.5

Very black in color like dust left by a fire

soot devil
  • Literature
9.9

An imaginary creature that makes soot messes near fireplaces

How Much

deposit
  • Specialized
68 3.5
layer
373 2.0
soot
34 2.5
film
32 3.2
smear
19 4.1
speck
70 1.3

Surface Forms

soot singular
soots plural

Etymology

Soot comes from an old English word sōt that meant 'black dust' left by fire. Think of the adjective sooty, which is the same root, so soot is the dark powder that collects after burning.