ash

¹ American  

[ash] / æʃ /

noun

1. the powdery residue of matter that remains after burning.

2. Also called volcanic ash.  Geology. finely pulverized lava thrown out by a volcano in eruption.

3. a light, silvery-gray color.

4. ashes,

   1. deathlike grayness; extreme pallor suggestive of death.

   2. ruins, especially the residue of something destroyed; remains; vestiges.

      the ashes of their love;

      the ashes of the past.

   3. mortal remains, especially the physical or corporeal body as liable to decay.

   4. anything, as an act, gesture, speech, or feeling, that is symbolic of penance, regret, remorse, or the like.

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ash ² American  

[ash] / æʃ /

noun

1. any of various trees of the genus Fraxinus, of the olive family, especially F. excelsior, of Europe and Asia, or F. americana white ash, of North America, having opposite, pinnate leaves and purplish flowers in small clusters.

2. the tough, straight-grained wood of any of these trees, valued as timber.

3. Also æsc the symbol “æ.”

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ash ¹ British  

/ æʃ /

noun

1. the nonvolatile products and residue formed when matter is burnt

2. any of certain compounds formed by burning See soda ash

3. fine particles of lava thrown out by an erupting volcano

4. a light silvery grey colour, often with a brownish tinge

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ash ² British  

/ æʃ /

noun

1. any oleaceous tree of the genus Fraxinus, esp F. excelsior of Europe and Asia, having compound leaves, clusters of small greenish flowers, and winged seeds

2. the close-grained durable wood of any of these trees, used for tool handles, etc

3. any of several trees resembling the ash, such as the mountain ash

4. any of several Australian trees resembling the ash, esp of the eucalyptus genus

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ASH ³ British  

/ æʃ /

acronym

1. Action on Smoking and Health

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ash ⁴ British  

/ æʃ /

noun

1. the digraph æ , as in Old English, representing a front vowel approximately like that of the a in Modern English hat. The character is also used to represent this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet

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Other Word Forms

• ashiness noun
• ashless adjective

Etymology

Origin of ash¹

First recorded before 950; Middle English a(i)sshe, Old English asce, æsce; cognate with Frisian esk, Dutch asch, Old Norse, Old High German aska ( German Asche ), Gothic azgo, from unattested Germanic askōn- (with Gothic form unexplained); akin to Latin ārēre “to be dry” ( see arid) and āra “altar,” Oscan aasaí “on the altar,” Tocharian ās- “to get dry,” Sanskrit ā́sa- “ashes,” Hittite hassi “on the hearth”; from Proto-Indo-European root as- “to burn, glow” (unattested)

Origin of ash²

First recorded before 900; Middle English asshe, Old English æsc; cognate with Frisian esk, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch asch, Old Saxon, Old High German asc ( German Esche, with altered vowel from the adjective derivative eschen, Middle High German eschîn ), Old Norse askr; akin to Latin ornus, Welsh onnen, Russian yáseń, Polish jesion, Czech jasan, Lithuanian úosis, Armenian hatsʰi; Albanian ah “beech,” from Proto-Indo-European ōs, os “ash (tree)” (unattested)

Explanation

Ash is what's left after something has been burned by a fire. You need to clean the ash out of a wood stove or fireplace every once in a while. After you burn wood in a fire pit or in a bonfire on the beach, there's ash left behind. Cigarette or cigar ash is what smokers tap off the end every so often — the burned part of the cigarette becomes ash. If you use the idiomatic phrase "it turned to ashes in my mouth," you mean that something was a huge disappointment or letdown.

Example Sentences

Home heating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries relied on wood- or coal-burning fireplaces or stoves that required constant tending of fires and ash and soot removal, and provided only uneven heat distribution.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026

Natural gas is used by glass manufacturers to run their furnaces, which melt sand, soda ash, limestone and recycled glass into molten glass blobs which are then shaped into bottles.

From BBC • Apr. 2, 2026

The later eruption likely covered much of the North Island in meters of ash.

From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2026

Reyne told Gil he knew who had done it, but Gil wouldn’t let him punish the accused camper without proof, and anything close to that had turned to ash.

From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026

The cloud spread like an anvil, carrying ash somewhat west and north but concentrating the spread in the east.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

Related Words

• drab
• dusty
• silvery