furnace
Americannoun
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furnaces
plural
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a structure or apparatus in which heat may be generated, as for heating houses, smelting ores, or producing steam.
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a place characterized by intense heat.
The volcano was a seething furnace.
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Astronomy. Furnace, the constellation Fornax.
verb (used with object)
noun
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an enclosed chamber in which heat is produced to generate steam, destroy refuse, smelt or refine ores, etc
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a very hot or stifling place
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of furnace
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English furneis, furnais, from Old French fornais, fournais, from Latin fornāc- (stem of fornāx “kiln, oven”), akin to formus “warm”
Explanation
A furnace is an appliance that heats houses and buildings by burning fuel or circulating hot water. Your furnace might rumble in the basement, sending heat up through your house's radiators. Most houses in cold climates have a furnace, to warm their rooms during the chilly months of the year. Furnaces also have industrial uses, like burning trash or extracting ore from metal. If someone says, "It's as hot as a furnace in this classroom!" they mean that it's extremely hot. Furnace comes from the Old French fornaise, "oven," with the Latin root word fornacem, "oven or kiln."
Vocabulary lists containing furnace
Mockingbird
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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:
"Every stage is crucial," explains master cymbalsmith Hasan Seker, a burly 56-year-old who co-founded Bosphorus Cymbals in 1996 and is sweating after hauling glowing blanks into and out of the furnace.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
“There was this weird vent, a furnace return, and a tiny cabinet with a door above it,” said Pete Lauenstein.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
“We as an industry are very reliant on electricity to make steel,” said Rob Simon, chief executive of JSW Steel USA, which uses an electric furnace at its Mingo Junction, Ohio, plant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Instead of working with a massive furnace, participants use small torches, making the process feel more approachable and easier to control.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
My recent favorite is a snowman that works in a furnace factory.
From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
In April 2025, Britain’s Parliament was recalled on a Saturday to stop the Chinese owner of its last two blast furnaces from letting them go cold.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
While saying there was no major impact yet on its blast furnaces, finance chief Axel Hamann said the company was keeping a close eye on the situation.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
Chasing demand means ordering specialized vacuum furnaces on two-year-plus lead times, hiring and training people and building up expensive inventories of superalloys, Chiang said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Rock samples are first heated in the furnaces to release volatile compounds.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
From most of them you could see the flames dancing above Sparrows Point’s furnaces and the eerie red smoke pouring from its smokestacks.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Bake yourselves, kiln-dry yourselves, if you choose, in your furnaced houses at home, but, if you value your health, "reform that altogether" in Italy.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 31, May, 1860 by Various
There he lies and sleeps From year to year—in soft Australian nights, And through the furnaced noons, and in the times Of wind and wet!
From The Poems of Henry Kendall With Biographical Note by Bertram Stevens by Henry Kendall
And the winds blew with excessive heat, as if warmed by the breath of sighs furnaced forth by travellers grieved at being separated from their wives.
From Tales of the Sun or Folklore of Southern India by Mrs. Howard Kingscote
Every word that he speaks has been fierily furnaced In the blast of a life that has struggled in earnest.
From Home Life of Great Authors by Hattie Tyng Griswold
Across a tract of furnaced flints there came a wind of water, From yellow banks with tender hints of Tethys' white-armed daughter.
From The Poems of Henry Kendall With Biographical Note by Bertram Stevens by Henry Kendall
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.
