incinerate

English

Etymology

From Latin incinerātus, perfect participle of incinerō (“to burn into ashes”), from cinis (“ashes”).

Pronunciation

• (verb, UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɪnəɹeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (adjective, UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɪnəɹət/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɪnɚeɪt/, /ɪnˈsɪnjɚeɪt/

Verb

incinerate (third-person singular simple present incinerates, present participle incinerating, simple past and past participle incinerated)

1. (transitive) To destroy by burning.
   • 1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., chapter 1, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 1:

     His mother was incinerated in the Dresden fire-storm. So it goes.

2. (informal) To annihilate (not necessarily by burning).

Derived terms

• incinerable
• incineration
• incinerator
• microincinerate

Translations

destroy by burning

Bulgarian: изгарям (bg) (izgarjam), кремирам (kremiram), изпепелявам (bg) (izpepeljavam) Catalan: incinerar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 焚化 (zh) (fénhuà), 燃燒 / 燃烧 (zh) (ránshāo) Dutch: verbranden (nl) Finnish: polttaa (fi); tuhkata (fi) (of the dead) French: incinérer (fr) German: verbrennen (de) Greek: αποτεφρώνω (el) (apotefróno) Ancient: ἀποτεφρόω (apotephróō) Hungarian: eléget (hu) sg Japanese: 焼却する (ja) (しょうきゃくする, shōkyaku suru), 燃やす (ja) (もやす, moyasu) Korean: 소각(燒却)하다 (ko) (sogakhada), 태우다 (ko) (tae'uda) Malay: menunu (ms) Maori: tūmata Polish: spopielać impf, spopielić pf, spalać (pl) impf, spalić (pl) pf Portuguese: incinerar (pt) Russian: сжига́ть (ru) impf (sžigátʹ), сжечь (ru) pf (sžečʹ), креми́ровать (ru) impf or pf (kremírovatʹ) (cremate), испепеля́ть (ru) impf (ispepeljátʹ), испепели́ть (ru) pf (ispepelítʹ) Spanish: incinerar (es) Swedish: förbränna (sv) Turkish: yakmak (tr) Ukrainian: згоряти (uk) pf (zhorjaty) Vietnamese: thiêu (vi) Yiddish: פֿאַרברענען (farbrenen)

Adjective

incinerate (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Reduced to ashes by burning; thoroughly consumed.
   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     FIRE burneth wood, making it first luminous; then black and brittle; and lastly , broken and incinerate

Anagrams

• cantinière, creatinine, itinerance

Latin

Verb

incinerāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of incinerō

Spanish

Verb

incinerate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of incinerar combined with te