cinder

American  

[sin-der] / ˈsɪn dər /

noun

• cinders
  plural

1. a partially or mostly burned piece of coal, wood, etc.

2. cinders,

   1. any residue of combustion; ashes.

   2. Geology. coarse scoriae erupted by volcanoes.

3. a live, flameless coal; ember.

4. Metallurgy.

   1. slag.

   2. a mixture of ashes and slag.

---

verb (used with object)

1. to spread cinders on.

   The highway department salted and cindered the icy roads.

2. Archaic. to reduce to cinders.

verb (used without object)

1. to spread cinders on a surface, as a road or sidewalk.

   My neighbor began cindering as soon as the first snowflake fell.

cinder British  

/ ˈsɪndə /

noun

1. a piece of incombustible material left after the combustion of coal, coke, etc; clinker

2. a piece of charred material that burns without flames; ember

3. Also called: sinter.  any solid waste from smelting or refining

4. (plural) fragments of volcanic lava; scoriae

---

verb

1. rare (tr) to burn to cinders

cinder Idioms  

1. see burned to a cinder.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cinderlike
  adjective
• cinderous
  adjective
• cindery
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cinders
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cinder

before 900; Middle English synder, Old English sinder slag; cognate with German Sinter, Old Norse sindr; c- (for s- ) < French cendre ashes

Explanation

A cinder is a small, hot, glowing coal from a fire. When you put out a campfire, it's important to make sure that not one single cinder remains. It's easy to miss the fact that a cinder is still hot, since it remains that way long after every flame has been extinguished. When people clean out their wood stoves, they put the ashes in a metal bucket — rather than a flammable paper bag, for example — in case there are hot cinders hidden inside them. The word cinder comes from the Old English sinder, or "slag." The c comes from the otherwise unrelated French cendre, "ashes."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cinder cinders

My friends and I were among the kids who occasionally did just that, and who, for fun, raced each other on that cinder track.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

After the crocodile ate a bird that had flown in, staff moved the reptile outside and used cinder blocks to weigh down the grate keeping it closed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026

After they knocked on the wall and heard knocking back, officers cut into Brewjee’s wall and uncovered only cinder block and cement, according to police.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026

Beneath moss-covered cinder blocks, dilapidated stone markers, and a handful of headstones, more than 200 children who died in state custody between the 1870s and 1930s are buried.

From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2026

He stacked another cinder block and scraped the ooze that came out the sides and bottom.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

Life savings, memories and livelihoods: all cinders within hours.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2025

"I've been relieved from the burden of my stuff because it's all in cinders."

From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2025

Burning characters to cinders does little but to flatten colonialism into a fiery spectacle.

From Salon ● Mar. 3, 2024

As cinders rained around her, the woman tried to flag down people driving past for a ride.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 13, 2023

The wind swirled around them, stirring their black cloaks and sending a scatter of red cinders flying from the fire.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

Related Words

• ember
• soot