kewl

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kuːl/, /kjuːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːl

Adjective

kewl (comparative kewler, superlative kewlest)

1. (Internet slang) Nonstandard spelling of cool.
   • 1990, Dangerous AL, “Janes Addiction”, in alt.rock-n-roll.metal (Usenet):

     Janes^[sic] Addiction is some KEWL stuff.

Usage notes

• Generally restricted to the colloquial meaning of popular, and therefore this spelling is useful to distinguish this word from the standard meaning of cool. With this particular meaning it has been adopted into other languages.

Derived terms

• kewl beans

Anagrams

• Welk, lewk, welk