Cal Common

Cal has 5 different meanings across 1 category:

Definitions

Noun

Abbreviation of calorie.

"The farmer spread cal on the acidic soil to neutralize it and improve crop growth."

wolfram, an ore of tungsten.

calcium hydroxide, slaked lime

In plain English: A cal is an old-fashioned unit of energy that measures how much heat you get from burning food or fuel.

"The gardener mixed cal with water to raise the soil's pH."

Usage: Use "cal" informally to refer to a unit of energy in nutrition or fitness contexts, but prefer the full word "calorie" in formal writing. It functions as a singular countable noun representing the amount of heat needed to raise one gram of water by one degree Celsius.

Proper Noun

A short form of the male given names Caleb, Calum or Calvin.

"Did you see that Cal won the regional chess tournament last weekend?"

A surname.

Example Sentences

"The gardener mixed cal with water to raise the soil's pH." noun

"The cal was a small amount of energy that our body uses to move around during the day." noun

"The cal is an old unit of energy that was once used in physics before being replaced by the joule." noun

"Scientists sometimes mention the cal when discussing historical data from early thermodynamic experiments." noun

"Although rarely seen today, the small calorie remains a familiar term in older nutritional charts." noun

Origin

The word cal is a shortened form of the chemical compound calcium hydroxide. It entered English usage as a direct abbreviation rather than evolving from a longer native term.

Rhyming Words

ical kcal fecal jacal bocal decal mucal focal local cocal ducal cecal tical vocal socal mescal plical fiscal laical thecal

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