conflagration
/ˌkɒnfləˈɡɹeɪʃən/
conflagration means A large fire extending to many objects, or over a large space; a general burning. It carries an Arena rating of 1894, earned across 39 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, conflagration ranks #119 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #181 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #583 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #1,208 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
conflagration is pronounced /ˌkɒnfləˈɡɹeɪʃən/.
Why “conflagration” is a great word
A large and devastating fire that consumes widely, reducing vast swathes of the built or natural world to ash. From the Latin conflagrātiōn-, conflagrātiō, from conflagrāre, meaning 'to burn up', from con- (completely) + flagrāre (to burn, blaze), first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Unlike a “blaze,” which speaks of intensity but not necessarily scale, or a “configuration,” a mere arrangement of parts often confused in spelling, a conflagration implies an unstoppable, all-consuming totality. It is the city block vanishing into a single roaring entity, the forest canopy becoming a ceiling of flame, the historical archive turning to lifted black petals on the wind—the moment when destruction becomes so complete that it inverts into a kind of terrible cleanliness.
Etymology
From Middle French, from Latin cōnflagrātiō (“burning, conflagration”).
noun
- A large fire extending to many objects, or over a large space; a general burning.e.g.“It took sixty firefighters to put out the conflagration.”
- A large-scale conflict.
- A situation of great passion or emotion.e.g.“I thought it only an amourette when you told me. It was a fire — a conflagration; subdue it.” — 1876, The New York Drama, volumes 1-2, page 1:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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