- present participle of burn.
burning
Americanadjective
-
aflame; on fire.
-
very hot; simmering.
The water was burning.
-
very bright; glowing.
She wore a burning red bathing suit.
-
caused by or as if by fire, a burn, or heat.
He had a burning sensation in his throat.
-
intense; passionate.
a burning desire.
-
urgent or crucial.
a burning question.
noun
-
burnings
plural
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the state, process, sensation, or effect of being on fire, burned, or subjected to intense heat.
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the baking of ceramic products to develop hardness and other properties.
-
the heating or the calcining of certain ores and rocks as a preliminary stage in various industrial processes.
adjective
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intense; passionate
-
urgent; crucial
a burning problem
noun
-
a form of heat treatment used to harden and finish ceramic materials or to prepare certain ores for further treatment by calcination
-
overheating of an alloy during heat treatment in which local fusion or excessive oxide formation and penetration occur, weakening the alloy
-
the heat treatment of particular kinds of gemstones to change their colour
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of burning
First recorded before 1000; Middle English brenning, Old English byrnende; see burn 1, -ing 1, -ing 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Norte fire is burning in a hilly area in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano, fueled by intense winds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
The Bryson Fire, burning in the affluent coastal city of Malibu in Los Angeles county, has also sparked evacuation orders throughout the Santa Monica mountains and has grown to 147 acres.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
"What we need from Jakarta is greater transparency, stronger enforcement against companies responsible for illegal burning, and closer cooperation with neighbouring countries."
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
The artificial-intelligence giants that carry your fund now trade on the same headlines as a burning oil tanker off the coast of Oman.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026
Christopher’s stomach lurched and he kicked downward—the pressure tightening on his ears, the cold burning on his skin—and seized it by the back leg.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
Weirich must have known about the book burnings and anti-Jewish laws, but he was at first largely silent about them in his diary.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
They were also sent into the streets in 2023 after a wave of truck burnings raised fears of wider unrest.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
Last year, Sapo accused Iranian intelligence of hacking into a text messaging service to send 15,000 messages to Swedes, after several Quran burnings.
From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2025
"As natural habitats adapted to these controlled burnings, we see the expansion of fire-adapted species such as Eucalyptus, primarily on the wetter, eastern side of the Bass Strait islands," said Adeleye.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2024
King began his speech, “Beyond Vietnam,” by acknowledging he was moved to “break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart.”
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
