- 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
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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:
That lively string of bird feeders beside the nursing home seemed quietly heroic, like a line of lanterns burning brightly against the dusk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Salamina Deputy Mayor Thodoris Zannis said firefighters were trying to keep the fires from burning over a mountain on the island and forming one major wildfire.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Last week’s episode of Amicus included a mailbag special in which Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern answered listeners’ burning questions about the law.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
Blazes were also burning in other parts of the Balkans as a heatwave brought soaring temperatures and worsened drought conditions.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
My face is burning as I stand there, feeling stupid.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
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
"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
Sweden raised its terror threat level last year following a series of burnings of the Quran that triggered protests in the Muslim world.
From Seattle Times ● May 2, 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.
