burning
Americanadjective
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aflame; on fire.
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very hot; simmering.
The water was burning.
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very bright; glowing.
She wore a burning red bathing suit.
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caused by or as if by fire, a burn, or heat.
He had a burning sensation in his throat.
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intense; passionate.
a burning desire.
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urgent or crucial.
a burning question.
noun
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the state, process, sensation, or effect of being on fire, burned, or subjected to intense heat.
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the baking of ceramic products to develop hardness and other properties.
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the heating or the calcining of certain ores and rocks as a preliminary stage in various industrial processes.
adjective
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intense; passionate
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urgent; crucial
a burning problem
noun
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a form of heat treatment used to harden and finish ceramic materials or to prepare certain ores for further treatment by calcination
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overheating of an alloy during heat treatment in which local fusion or excessive oxide formation and penetration occur, weakening the alloy
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the heat treatment of particular kinds of gemstones to change their colour
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of burning
First recorded before 1000; Middle English brenning, Old English byrnende; see burn 1, -ing 1, -ing 2
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:
Once underwater, they sliced through the ship’s steel using a torch with a self-consuming rod burning at thousands of degrees Fahrenheit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
The neighbouring countries have been gripped by some of the worst forest fires in living memory over the past week, burning vast areas and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
The neighbouring countries have been gripped by some of the worst forest fires in living memory over the past week, burning vast areas and forcing tens of thousands from their homes.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
The wildfire burning in the Ávila area was the largest in the country's recent history, she added.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
It was burning merrily in a nest of unscythed dry grass.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
In August 2023, Sweden's intelligence service Sapo raised its threat level to four on a scale of one to five, saying the Koran burnings had made the country a "prioritised target".
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2025
"As natural habitats adapted to these controlled burnings, we see the expansion of fire-adapted species such as Eucalyptus, primarily on the wetter, eastern side of the Bass Strait islands," said Adeleye.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 16, 2024
I saw the mass book burnings by the Nazis in 1933.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2024
Sweden raised its terror threat level last year following a series of burnings of the Quran that triggered protests in the Muslim world.
From Seattle Times ● May 2, 2024
King began his speech, “Beyond Vietnam,” by acknowledging he was moved to “break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart.”
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
