furnace
Americannoun
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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:
“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
Despite the England star again coming to his nation's aid with two goals that overcame Norway in the Miami furnace, Bellingham has a long way to go to be bracketed with those iconic figures.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
An electric furnace steel mill consumes 40 megawatts to 200 megawatts of electricity during the course of a day, with power usage rising or falling based on the flow of steel production.
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
Feeling a pleased importance, Ranofer led the way across the sun-warmed pavement to an idle furnace.
From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
"We don't smell it any more, I guess that's because the blast furnaces have gone."
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
This stopped its owner, Jingye, from closing blast furnaces, but the company remained privately owned.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Rock samples are first heated in the furnaces to release volatile compounds.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
On the train journey through steel country, he watched with awe the huge industrial furnaces that belched smoke and fire.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
For one thing, the furnaces were made differently and the flames that flared through the cracks of the fire chambers were too intense and too blue.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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 Kingscote, Mrs. Howard
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 Kendall, Henry
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
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 Kendall, Henry
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 Griswold, Hattie Tyng
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.
