bonfire means A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal. It carries an Arena rating of 1646, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bonfire ranks #71 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #328 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #411 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,508 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
bonfire is pronounced /ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/.
Why “bonfire” is a great word
A large, controlled outdoor fire, typically lit for celebration, as a signal, or to burn waste. From Middle English 'bonnefyre', a compound of 'bone' (referring to the burning of bones in some historical instances) and 'fire', replacing the earlier Old English 'bǣlfȳr' (balefire). Unlike a “campfire,” whose purpose is warmth and companionship, or an archaic “balefire,” which signals or marks a rite, a bonfire carries the specific, public weight of collective intent. It is the crackling tower on a November night, the sanctioned pyre of broken furniture and obsolete things, the particular orange glow that makes a crowd feel ancient and small at once—a spectacle of transience where the light born of destruction still warms the living.
Etymology
From Middle English bonnefyre (“a fire in which bones are burnt, bonfire”) [and other forms], by surface analysis, bone + fire. Replaced earlier Middle English bale-fyre, from Old English bǣlfȳr (see balefire). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that bonfires, originally lit as part of midsummer celebrations, were not generally associated with the burning of bones. However, the first edition of the OED (under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1887) stated that “for the annual midsummer ‘banefire’ or ‘bonfire’ in the burgh of Hawick [in Roxburghshire, Scotland], old bones were regularly collected and stored up, down to c. 1800”. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognate with Scots banefire (“bonfire”).
noun
- A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
- A fire lit outdoors to burn unwanted items; originally (historical), heretics or other offenders, or banned books; now, generally agricultural or garden waste, or rubbish.
- Something like a bonfire (sense 1 or 2) in heat, destructiveness, ferocity, etc.
- A fire lit to cremate a dead body; a funeral pyre.
verb
- To destroy (something) by, or as if by, burning on a bonfire; (more generally) to burn or set alight.e.g.“[L]ike the Christmas joke of snapdragons for children, the very liquor was to be bonfired also, and drank burning.” — 1828 May, “[Review of New Publications.] 96. Nichols’s Progresses of King James I. Parts XIX. and XX. (Concluded from p. 154.)”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Hi
- To fire (pottery) using a bonfire.e.g.“The pots are formed by the coiling method and bonfired using palm fronds, grass and sometimes dung.” — 2000, Moira Vincentelli, “Running the Business”, in Women and Ceramics: Gendered Vessels, Manchester; New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 195:
- To start a bonfire in (a place); to light up (a place) with a bonfire.e.g.“They almost carried him [the king] into the palace on their shoulders; and at night the whole town was illuminated and bonfired.” — 1743 November 28 (Gregorian calendar), Horace Walpole, “To Sir Horace Mann”, in The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford: […], volumes I (1735–1748), Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, publish
- To make, or celebrate around, a bonfire.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- burnfire 69% match — A bonfire. vs bonfire →
- balefire 67% match — A bonfire, any large outdoor fire (for example those used in a funeral pyre, or in witches' rituals). vs bonfire →
- bonfirelike 64% match — Resembling or characteristic of a bonfire. vs bonfire →
- campfire 62% match — A fire at a campground or on a camping trip, often used for cooking, to provide light and heat, to drive away bugs, and as a focal point for sitting around in the evening and talking, telling stories, and singing. vs bonfire →
- cookfire 60% match — A fire used for cooking food. vs bonfire →
- firebare 59% match — A beacon or lighthouse vs bonfire →
- beacon 58% match — A signal fire to notify of the approach of an enemy, or to give any notice, commonly of warning. vs bonfire →
- barbecue 57% match — A fireplace or pit for grilling food, typically used outdoors and traditionally employing hot charcoal as the heating medium. vs bonfire →