tinder

[ tin-der ]

noun

1. a highly flammable material or preparation formerly used for catching the spark from a flint and steel struck together for fire or light.
2. any dry substance that readily takes fire from a spark.

tinder

/ ˈtɪndə /

noun

1. dry wood or other easily combustible material used for lighting a fire
2. anything inflammatory or dangerous

   his speech was tinder to the demonstrators' unrest

Derived Forms

• ˈtindery, adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tinder¹

before 900; Middle English; Old English tynder; akin to German Zunder, Old Norse tundr, Old English -tendan (as in ātendan to set on fire), Gothic tundnan to catch fire, German -zünden in entzünden to kindle

Word History and Origins

Origin of tinder¹

Old English tynder; related to Old Norse tundr, Old High German zuntara

Example Sentences

Keep it burning Stock up on tinder, whether it be pine needles or cotton balls, and give your fire plenty of room to breathe.

From Popular-Science

A classic fire starting tinder of the northeast is the fungus that grows on birch trees.

From Popular-Science

At many news outlets, the comment magnets are articles that wade into the thorniest controversies, sparking flame wars from the tinder of entrenched political views.

From Quanta Magazine

The climate crisis has warmed and dried that tinder, leading to five of the six largest fires in California history just this year.

From ProPublica

The fires follow a bone-dry winter in Northern California and a stretch of record-setting summer heat waves across the state, conditions that effectively turned grasslands and forests into tinder.

From MIT Technology Review

Tinder and OkCupid are both owned by IAC, the parent company of The Daily Beast.

From The Daily Beast

This wasn't even my own account on JSwipe, which has been described as the Jewish Tinder.

From The Daily Beast

On and offline, offenses ranged from awful Tinder messages to violent threats on Twitter to street stalking.

From The Daily Beast

Things began to look up, she said in the post, when she met Phelps, 29, on Tinder.

From The Daily Beast

When you met him on Tinder were you initially thinking of this as a hook-up or a relationship?

From The Daily Beast

Three of the Spanish ships were burning like so much tinder, and it was plain that the battle was as good as won.

From Project Gutenberg

"I think you're a little tinder-box," he said, smiling ruefully.

From Project Gutenberg

She picked up the tinder box and the box of matches and put them in her pocket.

From Project Gutenberg

"It forms an excellent tinder-box," he replied, asking permission to retain it.

From Project Gutenberg

He also had a tinder-box, and some matches, to enable him to make a fire.

From Project Gutenberg