wildfire

American  

[wahyld-fahy^uhr] / ˈwaɪldˌfaɪər /

noun

wildfires plural

1. any large fire in brush, forests, or open spaces that spreads rapidly and is hard to extinguish.

2. a highly flammable composition, such as Greek fire, difficult to extinguish when ignited, formerly used in warfare.

3. sheet lightning, unaccompanied by thunder.

4. the ignis fatuus or a similar light.

5. Plant Pathology. a disease of tobacco and soybeans, characterized by brown, necrotic spots, each surrounded by a yellow band, on the leaves and caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas tabaci.

6. Pathology Obsolete. erysipelas or some similar disease.

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wildfire British  

/ ˈwaɪldˌfaɪə /

noun

1. a highly flammable material, such as Greek fire, formerly used in warfare

2. 1. a raging and uncontrollable fire

   2. anything that is disseminated quickly (esp in the phrase spread like wildfire )

3. lightning without audible thunder

4. another name for will-o'-the-wisp

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wildfire Idioms  

1. see spread like wildfire.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• wildfires
  plural

Etymology

Origin of wildfire

First recorded before 1000; Middle English wildefire, Old English wildfȳr; equivalent to wild + fire

Explanation

A wildfire is an uncontrolled blaze, especially one that ignites rural areas with a lot of trees and dry brush. Factors like drought, unusually warm weather, and development can contribute to bigger wildfires. Wildfires are a natural part of many forest lifecycles, but human activity and climate change have made these conflagrations more frequent and dangerous. Unextinguished campfires, lightning strikes, and power lines can all ignite a fire that spreads and becomes a wildfire, given dry enough conditions. The biggest U.S. wildfire, which burned acres of the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico, devastated an area larger than New York City. In Old English, a wildfire was a wilde fyr.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wildfire wildfires

Two firefighting planes have been rushed to the Paris region to tackle a large wildfire south of the French capital.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

“It is reprehensible to overcharge and take advantage of wildfire victims who were in desperate need of housing as they fled their homes from raging fires last year,” Los Angeles County Dist.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

President Emmanuel Macron said on X that all available resources had been deployed to fight what he described as "an exceptionally large wildfire".

From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026

Horses have been evacuated from an equestrian centre near Paris as the Fontainebleau wildfire continues to rage.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

Walking around all day hasn’t helped things, and the pain is returning like wildfire.

From "Legend" by Marie Lu

Hundreds of French firefighters aided by water bombers on Tuesday battled wildfires that have ravaged a hugely popular forest outside Paris as another scorching heatwave keeps the capital in its grip.

From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026

Several wildfires have broken out across the state in the last week, including a new one in Los Angeles County on Monday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

In Montreal, the sky turned yellow on Tuesday morning due to smoke from wildfires burning several hundred miles away in northern Quebec and northwestern Ontario.

From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026

More than eight million households in England are now living under hosepipe bans while the ongoing dry weather means a continued risk of wildfires, with blazes already in areas including Greater Manchester and Conwy.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

But they were built to survive regular wildfires.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz

Related Words

• blaze
• conflagration
• flare
• flash
• light
• spark