burning
Americanadjective
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aflame; on fire.
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very hot; simmering.
The water was burning.
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very bright; glowing.
She wore a burning red bathing suit.
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caused by or as if by fire, a burn, or heat.
He had a burning sensation in his throat.
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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:
Your burning questions, answered: In the special segment Decoder Rings Back, host Willa Paskin answers listeners’ queries about cultural mysteries.
From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2026
A law enforcement vehicle was seen driving through a burning barricade in France's second-largest city.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
During the disaster, however, the graphite ignited and continued burning for ten days.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2026
Its chief tourist attraction is the Darvaza gas crater, in the Karakum desert: a smelly, burning hole in the ground also known as the Gate to Hell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
The truth I can no longer deny is burning itself into every part of me, like it wants to make sure I never forget.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
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
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
It took nine separate burnings before the fire got down to the straw and cotton ticking of its insides.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
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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.
