kohl

Word family

• kohled
  adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Kohl refers specifically to a loose black powder applied to the inner rim of the eyelids, a cosmetic tradition stretching back thousands of years. Eyeliner is the modern Western equivalent — a pencil, liquid, or gel applied along the lash line, available in many colours and far more temporary. Kajal is the closest relative: also a dark powder used on the waterline, but traditionally made at home from lamp soot mixed with oil or ghee, giving it a softer, smudgier texture. Surma is essentially the same product as kohl, just the name preferred in South Asian English. Mascara, by contrast, is applied to the lashes themselves to darken and lengthen them — it never touches the eyelid rim. A sentence like 'She wore kohl and mascara' uses both correctly: kohl on the waterline, mascara on the lashes.

Common collocations

Etymology

From Arabic كُحْل (kuḥl), originally meaning 'antimony' — the metallic element whose ground ore was the traditional source of the powder. The word entered English through trade and travel accounts between the 16th and 18th centuries. The same Arabic root produced 'alcohol': originally al-kuḥl referred to a fine powder obtained by sublimation, and the idea of a refined essence was later transferred to distilled spirits.