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inferno

[in-fur-noh; for 3 also Italian een-fer-naw]
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noun, plural in·fer·nos.
  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.
  3. (initial capital letter, italics) the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy, depicting hell and the suffering of the damned.Compare paradise(def 7), purgatory(def 2).
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Origin of inferno

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

Synonyms

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2. furnace, hellhole, oven.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for inferno

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • So, she went through the inferno of days and nights in a dreariness of suffering that was deadly.

    Within the Law

    Marvin Dana

  • We stood now on the rim of the crater, looking straight into the inferno.

    The Underdog

    F. Hopkinson Smith

  • And here, in this inferno of luggage, was White Fang deserted by the master.

    White Fang

    Jack London

  • It was an inferno of shifting lights and long leaping shadows.

    The Harbor

    Ernest Poole

  • What stories they had to tell of the inferno they had come from!

British Dictionary definitions for inferno

inferno

noun plural -nos
  1. the inferno (sometimes capital) hell; the infernal region
  2. any place or state resembling hell, esp a conflagration
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Word Origin

C19: from Italian, from Late Latin infernus hell
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for inferno

n.

1834, from Italian inferno, from Latin infernus (see infernal).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
inferno in Culture

Inferno

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

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Note

By extension, an “inferno” is a hot and terrible place or condition.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.