kindling

American  

[kind-ling] / ˈkɪnd lɪŋ /

noun

kindlings plural

1. material that can be readily ignited, used in starting a fire.

2. the act of one who kindles.

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kindling British  

/ ˈkɪndlɪŋ /

noun

1. material for starting a fire, such as dry wood, straw, etc

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unkindling
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• kindlings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of kindling

Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at kindle ¹, -ing ¹

Compare meaning

How does kindling compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• tinder vs. kindling

Explanation

The small pieces of wood you use to start a fire are called kindling. When you go camping, you can gather kindling, little twigs and branches, to use in a campfire. Kindling helps a fire get going because it's small and dry, easily flammable. Once the kindling is burning, it can ignite the larger pieces of wood in your fire. You can also use this word to mean "the act of lighting," so you could say, "Kindling this fire is so hard after all that rain we had." Kindling comes from the Old Norse root kynda, "to light a fire."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

kindling kindlings

But in those circumstances, short sellers provide dry kindling for a conflagration because when the stock jumps, they race to buy it at any price and return borrowed shares.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

An ash tree in my yard dropped a limb and reduced my fence to kindling.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 21, 2026

We matter as much to him as a firestorm cares about kindling.

From Salon ● Mar. 20, 2026

Last month, Unesco recognised it as a Creative City of Gastronomy - adding it to a select list of global cities and kindling hopes that it will spotlight Lucknow's sublime food.

From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2025

Plus, we have a sub—a bald guy with legs like kindling sticks and his name safety-pinned to his shirt like a kindergartener whose mom thought he might forget.

From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko

Their previous album, II, had kindlings of groove but Multi-Love is lit up by it like a fairground at night.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 9, 2015

Which of the following natural fine kindlings will not reliably ignite?

From Time Magazine Archive

Cut into pieces, the apple tree can be carpentered into a table, or at the least its kindlings will give off a splendid flame.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was a sawhorse, and there were three different-sized woodpiles, one of big pieces, one of middle-sized pieces, and one of little pieces for kindlings, all ranked perfectly.

From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen

Now the smoke was simply pouring out, not only out of the paper but out of the kindlings, too.

From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen