soot

Everyday

1. Soot is the black powder that smoke leaves behind when wood, coal, oil or candles burn. tree →
2. Soot collects inside chimneys, on walls near fires and on cooking pots. tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons about burning and pollution, soot is made of tiny bits of carbon in smoke and can harm lungs. In history, children called chimney sweeps once climbed chimneys to clean out soot. In stories, faces and clothes are black with soot after a fire.

Examples

• The chimney was full of soot. tree →
• His face was black with soot after cleaning the fireplace. tree →
• Candle smoke left soot on the ceiling. tree →
• Long ago, children swept soot out of chimneys. tree →
• Soot in the air is bad for our lungs. tree →
• The firefighters came out covered in soot. tree →
• We wiped the soot off the old kettle. tree →
• And when the soot and ashes had been washed from her face, she looked more beautiful than anyone in the world. tree →

Note

Uncountable: «some soot», never «a soot». Pronounced to rhyme with «foot» (in many places) — not «suit». Adjective: «sooty». Soot is mostly carbon; a lot of soot in a chimney can catch fire, so chimneys need sweeping.

In Jewish tradition

Moses scattered handfuls of furnace soot, which became boils on the Egyptians in the sixth plague.

Interpretation. Tradition reads it as the plague coming from the very furnaces where Israel was forced to make bricks, so their suffering turned back on their oppressors.

Examples

• And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron: 'Take to you handfuls of soot of the furnace, and let Moses throw it heavenward in the sight of Pharaoh. (Torah EXO.9.8, JPS 1917) tree →
• And they took soot of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses threw it up heavenward; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast. (Torah EXO.9.10, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Uncountable: «some soot», never «a soot». Pronounced to rhyme with «foot» (in many places) — not «suit». Adjective: «sooty». Soot is mostly carbon; a lot of soot in a chimney can catch fire, so chimneys need sweeping.