incendiary.
Capable of, or used for, or actually causing fire.
Meaning & usage
Capable of, or used for, or actually causing fire.
Of a damaging fire, intentionally caused rather than accidental.
Intentionally stirring up strife, riot, rebellion.
Inflammatory, emotionally charged.
Politics is an incendiary topic; it tends to cause fights to break out.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English incendiarie, from Old French incendiaire, from Latin incendiārius (“setting alight”), from incendium (“destructive fire”), from incendō (“to set on fire, kindle”), from in- (“into, in, on, upon”) + candeō (“to be hot”).
Something capable of causing fire, particularly a weapon.
The military used incendiaries to destroy the building. Fortunately, the fire didn't spread.
One who maliciously sets fires.
One who excites or inflames factions into quarrels.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English incendiarie, from Old French incendiaire, from Latin incendiārius (“setting alight”), from incendium (“destructive fire”), from incendō (“to set on fire, kindle”), from in- (“into, in, on, upon”) + candeō (“to be hot”).
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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.