conflagrant
/kɒnˈfleɪɡɹənt/
conflagrant means brilliantly burning; of or resembling a conflagration; intensely blazing. It carries an Arena rating of 1621, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, conflagrant ranks #1,379 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #1,445 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #2,787 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #3,436 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
conflagrant is pronounced /kɒnˈfleɪɡɹənt/.
Why “conflagrant” is a great word
Burning with a spectacularly destructive intensity; of or resembling a large, all-consuming fire. From the Latin cōnflagrāns, present participle of cōnflagrāre (to burn up, be consumed by fire), from con- (intensive) + flagrāre (to burn, blaze), first attested in English in the mid-17th century (1650–60). Unlike “smoldering,” which implies a dormant, choking heat, or “ablaze,” a more general state of combustion, “conflagrant” carries the specific weight of catastrophe and scale. It is the roaring wall of flame devouring a city block, the magnesium-white heart of an industrial furnace, and the apocalyptic sky over a forest turned to kindling—the terrible, elemental beauty of a world actively consuming itself.
Etymology
From the Latin cōnflagrāns (oblique stem: cōnflagrant-), present active participle of cōnflagrō.
adj
- Brilliantly burning; of or resembling a conflagration; intensely blazing.e.g.“I would have cast me into molten glass
To cool me, when I enter'd; so intense
Rag'd the conflagrant mass.” — c. 1805-1814, Dante Alighieri, Henry Francis Cary (translator), (The Divine Comedy, The Vision; or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, of Dante Alighieri (Volume II), J. Barfield, Taylor and Hessey, page
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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