Definition

1. Noun:
   • Alcohol (Ethanol): A clear, volatile, flammable liquid, often with a high concentration of ethanol, used as a fuel, solvent, disinfectant, or in alcoholic beverages. This is the most common scientific and everyday meaning.
   • Hillock; River Islet; Sand Dune: A small hill, a mound, or a sandy elevation, especially one formed in a river or along a coast by the action of water and wind.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Alcohol):
  • Y tá dùng cồn để sát trùng vết thương. (The nurse used alcohol to disinfect the wound.)
  • Đèn cồn thường được dùng trong phòng thí nghiệm. (An alcohol burner is often used in the laboratory.)
• Noun (Hillock/Islet):
  • Con thuyền nhỏ cập bến ở một cồn giữa sông. (The small boat docked at a river islet.)
  • Những cồn cát trắng trải dài theo bờ biển. (White sand dunes stretch along the coastline.)

Advanced Usage

• The word can be part of compound nouns specifying the type of alcohol or geographical feature.
  • cồn y tế: medical/surgical alcohol (for disinfection).
  • cồn công nghiệp: industrial alcohol (often denatured, not for consumption).
  • cồn cát: sand dune.
  • cồn đất: small earthen hillock.

Variants and Related Words

• Cồn cào (Adjective/Verb): Describes a gnawing, churning, or burning sensation, often in the stomach (e.g., from hunger or anxiety). (I felt a gnawing in my stomach from hunger.)
• Cồn ruột (Adjective/Verb): Similar to "cồn cào," meaning to feel restless, anxious, or impatient. (He was restlessly waiting for the results.)

Synonyms

• For Alcohol: Ethanol, spirits (in certain contexts), rubbing alcohol.
• For Hillock/Islet: Dune, mound, islet, eyot.

Related Idioms

• Nóng như cồn: Literally "hot as alcohol," meaning extremely hot (referring to temperature or temper). (This cup of water is scalding hot.)
• Cồn lòng / Cồn ruột: These are not strictly idioms but common phrases using the extended meaning of a churning, restless feeling, as explained in "Variants and Related Words."

noun

1. Alcohol

noun

1. hillock; river islet