- 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.
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urgent or crucial.
a burning question.
noun
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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.
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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
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a form of heat treatment used to harden and finish ceramic materials or to prepare certain ores for further treatment by calcination
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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 33-year-old’s rounds include sniffing for burning equipment that could indicate overheating, feeling tubes for cracks and looking for faulty lighting or broken power transformers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
Unlike Earth, the Moon has no atmosphere capable of slowing incoming space rocks or burning them up before they reach the ground.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
Roebuck was still lying on the tile floor, his stomach burning.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
A barely conscious Millroy was stuck in his car for over a minute before he was pulled from the burning wreckage by Dutchman Hartog after he immediately stopped his car to help him.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
They started burning and smoking at the same time.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
In August 2023, Sweden's intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of one to five, saying the Koran burnings had made the country a "prioritised target".
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2025
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
From there, your personal security detail can ferry you around town, to any number of errands, book signings, book burnings or, presumably, wherever you’d like to bring a few armed beefcakes.
From Salon ● Feb. 24, 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
No burnings today, and none tomorrow... but if the snows continue, how long before the king s resolve begins to weaken?
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
