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:
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
So this new relationship could also be combustible.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
Automakers are also racing to shift away from combustible engines under EU rules that call for 90 percent of all cars sold in the bloc to be electric by 2035.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
Reliant on imports, Iran also faces a gasoline crisis—which is politically combustible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
By temperament, he was inherently impulsive, highly combustible, instinctively irreverent.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
It appears that combustibles were largely removed from the under-deck area, and the ember exposure of the deck was lessened because it faces the ocean, he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2023
"Our performance in U.S. combustibles has been disappointing," newly appointed Chief Executive Tadeu Marroco said in a statement.
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
But with battery fires, he said, “we go from no problem whatsoever to a fully involved fire. If there are any combustibles around that bike, they will be on fire in a second.”
From Slate ● Feb. 20, 2023
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.
