incinerate
Americanverb (used with object)
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incinerates,
present (3rd person singular)
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incinerated,
past participle, past
-
incinerating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
incineratesimple
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incineratessimple
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have incineratedperfect
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has incineratedperfect
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am incineratingprogressive
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are incineratingprogressive
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is incineratingprogressive
-
have been incineratingperfect progressive
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has been incineratingperfect progressive
Past
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incineratedsimple
-
had incineratedperfect
-
was incineratingprogressive
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were incineratingprogressive
-
had been incineratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of incinerate
1545–55; < Medieval Latin incinerātus (past participle of incinerāre ) < Latin in- in- 2 + ciner- (stem of cinis ) ashes + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
See incinerate and think: "burn, baby, burn!" Whether it’s an old love letter that makes you sad or a terrible picture of yourself, it might be better just to incinerate it, meaning, you burn it. When you burn something beyond recognition, you incinerate it, as its Latin origins in incinerare, or "into ashes" shows. Once you incinerate something, that’s pretty much all that’s left: ashes. The word has a formal feel and is often used to refer to the removal of waste material — your city might incinerate garbage, for example — but you can use it any time you need to reduce something to ashes.
Vocabulary lists containing incinerate
The Book Thief
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Slaughterhouse-Five
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The Wednesday Wars
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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:
It is promoting waste-to-energy sites that incinerate garbage and produce electricity, with 34 planned within two years.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
It describes the behavior of some speculators in volatile stocks or cryptocurrencies who incinerate more of their savings after failing to cash in on big paper gains.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
One man was caught using a blowtorch to incinerate debris in West Hills as the Kenneth fire raged above him, police said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025
“Ideally we don’t want to incinerate them because it has to be done very, very slowly. But if have to, we will,” said Bob Cappadona, who leads the company’s environmental services division.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 19, 2023
Here the prefix in is for emphasis, as in words like incinerate, incoming and intense.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
The machine incinerates the feathers at extremely high temperatures, measuring the emitted mercury.
From Reuters ● Aug. 5, 2023
Then a specialist smelting firm retrieves around 90% of the metals in the phone - a process which incinerates the plastic parts.
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2021
Even now, he said, he has the sort of high metabolism that incinerates calories.
From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2021
Daenerys incinerates the rooms where, years ago, Ned argued with Robert and the Small Council not to assassinate her.
From Slate ● May 17, 2019
Springs of ancient wrath spray and fling its repressed fury , heeding not whom or what it incinerates when gravity reclaims lava?s spurts .
From NATURAE by Dom
Thomas said a large wildfire on Mynydd Llantysilio near Llangollen, Denbighshire, in 2018 incinerated about 10cm of peat in some areas.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Elsewhere in France, a fire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris incinerated a tenth of the UNESCO-listed site in mid-July, after several other wildfires in the country.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
It’s possible the blaze incinerated the dainty purple-and-white flowers before they could drop seeds this year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Globally, it's estimated that 300,000 disposable nappies are sent to landfill or incinerated every minute, leading to environmental issues as many contain plastics and synthetic materials and can take hundreds of years to decompose.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2026
Jack immediately grabbed May and dove to the floor, barely dodging a bolt of lightning that incinerated the stones just above the Wolf King.
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
Flames have torn through vast swathes of forest in both countries, incinerating properties and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
"By reusing plastic waste that is already in Hawaii, we can reduce the environmental and economic impacts of transporting waste plastics from the islands, incinerating it or dumping it in Hawaii's overflowing landfills."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 28, 2026
After all, the “Toy Story” franchise has had pure villains before — one of them almost got away with incinerating the toys for good!
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2026
Politicians will be tempted to let inflation whittle them down instead, incinerating the value of very long-term bonds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
She fought for breath, as if that stare was incinerating all the oxygen in the room, as if she would be consumed along with it.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
