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.

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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

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verb

1. rare (tr) to burn to cinders

cinder Idioms  

1. see burned to a cinder.

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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

Residents resorted to burying the bodies just outside school grounds; more than 20 graves run parallel to the school’s outer wall, each marked with a broken cinder block.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 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

His throne room is made of cinder blocks and has a dirt floor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026

He has stacked some cinder blocks to anchor iron rods for holding up a sheet, which is meant to serve as a roof.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2025

But there was nothing, so he stepped back off the cinder blocks.

From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss

But as she wandered through the wreckage on Thursday, she stepped amid cinders left by the flames that had swarmed the land and erased the life she had built.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 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

Five firefighters who were protecting Pomonal sustained minor burns from cinders on Tuesday night when the fire changed direction and burnt over their truck, officials said.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 13, 2024

Smoke and cinders swirled through the air, and the foe broke before their charge, throwing themselves back into the water, knocking over other men as they fought to climb up.

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

Related Words

• ember
• soot