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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

inflame.

To set (someone or something) on fire; to cause (someone or something) to burn, flame, or glow; to kindle.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɪnˈfleɪm/General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ɪɱ-]General-American, Received-Pronunciation[-ˈfleɪ̯m]General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. To set (someone or something) on fire; to cause (someone or something) to burn, flame, or glow; to kindle.

    transitive
  2. To cause (something) to appear bright or red, as if on fire; to brighten, to redden.

    broadly · transitive
  3. To cause (the body or a body part) to feel abnormally or unusually hot; specifically (medicine), to cause inflammation, including abnormal heat, pain, redness, swelling, etc., in (the body or a body part).

    broadly · transitive
    to inflame the eyes by overwork
  4. To cause (someone, or their heart, mind, etc.) to feel strong desire or other feelings; to excite (someone) to great passion; specifically, to cause (someone) to feel anger or rage; to anger, to enrage, to incense.

    figuratively · transitive
  5. To excite or intensify (a feeling, such as an appetite or passion), especially to an excessive or unnatural level.

    figuratively · transitive
    to inflame desire
  6. To cause (something intangible, such as a dispute or violence, or hunger or thirst) to become more serious or worse; to aggravate, to exacerbate.

    figuratively · transitive
  7. To increase (the price or quantity of something).

    figuratively · obsolete · transitive
  8. To burst into flames, to catch fire.

    intransitive
  9. Of a person's body or body part: to feel abnormally or unusually hot; specifically (medicine), to be affected by inflammation.

    broadly · intransitive
  10. To become very hot.

    broadly · intransitive · obsolete
  11. To feel strong desire or other feelings; to be passionate; specifically, to feel anger or rage.

    figuratively · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English inflammen, enflamen, enflaumen (“to set (something) on fire; to be on fire; (figurative) to enrage (someone); to become enraged; to incite (someone) to do evil; to inspire (someone); (medicine) to cause inflammation of (a body part)”), from Old French enflamer, enflammer (“to set (something) on fire, inflame; to be on fire; (figurative) to fuel (a debate, hatred, etc.)”) (modern French enflammer), from Latin inflammāre, the present active infinitive of inflammō (“to set (something) on fire, inflame; (figurative) to excite (someone)”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘into; to, towards’) + flammō (“to set (something) on fire; to be on fire; (figurative) to incite (someone)”) (from flamma (“flame, fire; (figurative) passion”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-, *bʰl̥g- (“to blaze, burn; to glow, shine; bright flame, fire”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). By surface analysis, in- (prefix meaning ‘into; to, towards’) + flame.

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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.