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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cinder.

Partially or mostly burnt material that results from incomplete combustion of coal or wood etc.; it often rides the rising smoke column into the air, and it can pose a fire hazard when it lands, in dry conditions.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsɪndəː/Received-Pronunciation[ˈsɪndəː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɪndɚ/General-American[ˈsɪ̟ndɚ] ~ [ˈsɪ̟ndɹ̩]General-American

  1. Partially or mostly burnt material that results from incomplete combustion of coal or wood etc.; it often rides the rising smoke column into the air, and it can pose a fire hazard when it lands, in dry conditions.

  2. An ember.

  3. Slag from a metal furnace.

  4. Any strong stimulant added to tea, soda water, etc.

    colloquial · dated
Where this word comes from

From Middle English cyndyr, syndir, synder, sinder, from Old English sinder (“cinder, dross, slag, scoria, dross of iron, impurity of metal”), from Proto-West Germanic *sindr, from Proto-Germanic *sindrą, *sindraz (“dross, cinder, slag”), from Proto-Indo-European *sendʰro- (“coagulating fluid, liquid slag, scale, cinder”). Cognate with Scots sinder (“ember, cinder”), West Frisian sindel, sintel (“cinder, slag”), Dutch sintel (“cinder, ember, slag”), Middle Low German sinder, sinter (“cinder, slag”), German Sinter (“dross of iron, scale”), Danish sinder (“spark of ignited iron, cinder”), Swedish sinder (“slag or dross from a forge”), Icelandic sindur (“scoring”), Old Church Slavonic сѧдра (sędra, “lime cinder, gypsum”). Spelling (c- for s-) influenced by unrelated French cendre (“ashes”). Doublet of sinter.

verb/ˈsɪndəː/Received-Pronunciation[ˈsɪndəː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɪndɚ/General-American[ˈsɪ̟ndɚ] ~ [ˈsɪ̟ndɹ̩]General-American

  1. To reduce to cinders.

    transitive

  2. To cover with cinders.

    transitive
    We plan to cinder this path.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English cyndyr, syndir, synder, sinder, from Old English sinder (“cinder, dross, slag, scoria, dross of iron, impurity of metal”), from Proto-West Germanic *sindr, from Proto-Germanic *sindrą, *sindraz (“dross, cinder, slag”), from Proto-Indo-European *sendʰro- (“coagulating fluid, liquid slag, scale, cinder”). Cognate with Scots sinder (“ember, cinder”), West Frisian sindel, sintel (“cinder, slag”), Dutch sintel (“cinder, ember, slag”), Middle Low German sinder, sinter (“cinder, slag”), German Sinter (“dross of iron, scale”), Danish sinder (“spark of ignited iron, cinder”), Swedish sinder (“slag or dross from a forge”), Icelandic sindur (“scoring”), Old Church Slavonic сѧдра (sędra, “lime cinder, gypsum”). Spelling (c- for s-) influenced by unrelated French cendre (“ashes”). Doublet of sinter.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.