combustible
Americanadjective
-
capable of catching fire and burning; inflammable; flammable.
Gasoline vapor is highly combustible.
-
easily excited.
a high-strung, combustible nature.
noun
-
combustibles
plural
adjective
-
capable of igniting and burning
-
easily annoyed; excitable
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of combustible
From the Late Latin word combūstibilis, dating back to 1520–30. See combust, -ible
Explanation
Combustible means "able to catch fire," like matches or the extremely dry forest floors that people sometimes forget are combustible — until they go up in flames. When the adjective combustible first entered the English language in the sixteenth century, it was used to describe things that burn easily. The word soon came to apply not only to objects that ignite but also to tempers that are prone to "catch fire" easily. If you’ve ever been around a person who has a combustible temper, you can understand the connection.
Vocabulary lists containing combustible
Automobiles
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100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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The Great Fire
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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 campaign is playing out against an unusually combustible mix of economic anxiety, war, immigration battles, corruption concerns and unease over rapidly expanding artificial intelligence.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
Phase two, to be completed within five years, tackles the more extensive changes closest to the home, including the one-foot vegetation-free safety zone and replacement of combustible gates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
The beetles strip plants of their leaves, leaving combustible woody stems, he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Other areas had gone without fire for more than 100 years, allowing dead wood, shrubs, and other combustible material to accumulate.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026
It was neither horse-drawn nor powered by a combustible engine.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
In other situations where combustibles were close to homes, embers likely ignited those materials and created spot fires, or entered open windows or vents, she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025
The company said the number of consumers of non-combustible products grew by 900,000 in the first quarter, but growth in the U.S. combustibles market staggered.
From Reuters ● Jun. 6, 2023
Renaldo said workers were using blowtorches on the building’s exterior before the fire and that heat may have transferred through brick or mortar to the interior and ignited paper or other combustibles.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
In August 2017, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service told managers not to store combustibles - like kindling and newspapers - in the concierge cupboard, but staff continued to do so.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2021
We formed a ring around the base of the tree, and one by one deposited our combustibles at the trunk.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
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.
