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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

Inflected Forms

noun

• 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

Like the asteroid associated with the K-Pg extinction, the impact described in Inferno is portrayed as powerful enough to penetrate deep into the Earth and reshape the planet itself.

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

He also appeared - along with half of Hollywood - in the Towering Inferno, as a crooked electrical engineer whose corner-cutting leads to the spectacular destruction of a 138 floor building.

From BBC • Mar. 30, 2025

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

We read Dante’s Inferno in English class, and I always thought it was odd that the very pit of hell is ice—the absence of all hope and light and love.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

Related Words

• purgatory