flame

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“
When I really go it must be in a flame, in answer to your flame You mean--I But if the flame were about to burst forth she smothered it in the spark And all this has upset me," she went on incoherently.

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Definitions (40)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (13)

  1. noun The zone of burning gases and fine suspended matter associated with rapid combustion; a hot, glowing mass of burning gas or vapor.
  2. noun The condition of active, blazing combustion: burst into flame.
  3. noun Something resembling a flame in motion, brilliance, intensity, or shape.
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Examples (50)

  • Did you know that a flame is the opposite of a living thing No It's an information-conversion system, just like a plant or a person. —  F ;SF; - vol 091 issue 04-05 - October-November 1996
  • Granted that the example of the flame is a superficial similarity, don't the other two indicate that there is no hard and fast borderline between living and non-living things? —  GALAXY
  • And the flame was abruptly violent, blue-white and fizzing, as it burned through his leg bindings He managed also to jam his wrist bonds down into the flame Simultaneously, Monk and Ham came out of the crevice nearby, where they had been concealed. —  101 - The Green Eagle
  • With a soft hiss, a Coleman lantern shed fierce white light over the thronged I-beams, making them leap and then fall as the flame was adjusted down again to near-extinction You may stand now Will stood A ragged line of some twenty to thirty feys confronted him. —  Asimov'sSF,December2006
  • It struck sparks, the tinder ignited, and the flame was applied to a tallow candle which the ghostly figure also brought from under the white doublet. —  021 - The Sea Magician
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

fire ·  smoke ·  glow ·  heat ·  cloud ·  red ·  wave ·  flash ·  sun ·  gold ·  stone ·  color

Used in the same contextWord Family

flame:   flaming ·  flames ·  flamed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Anglo-Norman flaumbe, variant of Old French flambe, from flamble, from Latin flammula, diminutive of flamma; see bhel-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also dial. flam, flamb; from Middle English flambe, flaumbe, flaume, flawme, from Old French flambe, flamme, flame, French flambe = Provencal flama = Spanish llama = Portuguese flamma = Italian fiamma = Dutch vlam = Middle Low German flamma = Middle High German vlamme, flamme, German flamme = Swedish flamma = Danish flamme, flame, from Latin flamma, flame, blaze, blazing fire, orig. *flagma, from √ *flag in flagrare, burn, blaze: see flagrant. Cf. phlegm (formerly also flem, etc.).
  2. Also dial. flam, flamm, flamb; from Middle English flamben, flaumben, flawmen, rarely flamen, flame, shine, glitter, from Old French flamber, flamer, French flamber = Italian flammare = Dutch vlammen = Middle High German vlammen, German flammen = Swedish flamma = Danish flamme, from Latin flammare, flame, blaze, burn, transitive inflame, kindle, incite, from flamma, a flame. Cf. inflame.
 

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/fleɪm/
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