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• inferno
  inferno

  noun

  hell; the infernal regions.
• Inferno
  Inferno

  The first section of The Divine Comedy, by Dante. Inferno is the Italian word for “hell.”

inferno

American  

[in-fur-noh, een-fer-naw] / ɪnˈfɜr noʊ, inˈfɛr nɔ /

noun

• infernos
  plural

1. hell; the infernal regions.

2. a place or region that resembles hell.

   The ironworks was an inferno of molten steel and half-naked bodies.

   Synonyms:

   oven, hellhole, furnace

3. (initial capital letter, italics) the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy, depicting hell and the suffering of the damned.

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inferno British  

/ ɪnˈfɜːnəʊ /

noun

1. (sometimes capital) hell; the infernal region

2. any place or state resembling hell, esp a conflagration

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Inferno Cultural  

1. The first section of The Divine Comedy, by Dante. Inferno is the Italian word for “hell.”

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Discover More

By extension, an “inferno” is a hot and terrible place or condition.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• infernos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of inferno

1825–35; < Italian < Late Latin infernus hell, noun use of Latin infernus; see infernal

Explanation

An inferno is a huge fire that's difficult to control, like an inferno that burns down a whole city block. Inferno also can describe any horrible place where people suffer. The Latin word infernus means "of the lower regions." Using inferno to mean "hell" is credited to medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Dante's epic poem the Divine Comedy contains one part titled The Inferno, which tells of a journey through the nine circles of hell full of torture, pain, and imagery of red — flames, boiling blood, and so on.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

inferno Inferno infernos

Early Wednesday, fire crews prioritized protecting structures as the inferno charged toward Highway 1.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

It was around 1:40 a.m. on a summer Saturday last month when Alcaraz’s cell ignited into an inferno.

From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026

At the height of the inferno, more than 100 firefighters were deployed to the scene and up to 150 residents and holidaymakers were estimated to have been forced from the area.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026

Firefighters in France have been battling an inferno in the region around the city of Bordeaux that has burned more than 100,000 acres, marking the area’s largest blaze since a deadly fire in 1949.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

Finally able to see a way out of the Płaszów inferno, I felt stronger in spirit if not in body.

From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson

Dante Alighieri's Inferno may contain more than religious symbolism and poetic imagination.

From Science Daily ● May 11, 2026

The roughly 15,000-square-foot home was used as a filming location in the Oscar-winning movie ‘The Towering Inferno.’

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026

Supposedly the inspiration for Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, the land here is a web of natural cracks in the rock that let a mix of steam and gasses reach the surface.

From National Geographic ● Feb. 2, 2024

I'm not a particularly religious person, so when the concept of hell comes up my mind always goes to Dante's "Inferno," the best known section of his "Divine Comedy."

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2023

He had no idea where he had got his picture of academic life—perhaps from the Dore illustrations of Dante’s Inferno with its massed and radiant angels.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

Such is the vast scale of the infernos ravaging France's south-western Gironde region, that it is not always obvious what direction the smoke is coming from.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

It notably does not include forest lost to fires, but after a record fire season in 2024, the country was relatively spared major infernos last year.

From Barron's ● May 27, 2026

President Trump last month lambasted the company’s “absolutely horrible” response to the L.A. infernos.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026

Water managers and experts said the water systems in Pacific Palisades and Altadena were never designed for wildfires that rage through entire neighborhoods, or for infernos intensified by climate change.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025

The volume of the infernos roar also died down enough that he could hear the crunching sounds of his footsteps again.

From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner

Related Words

• purgatory