Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or process of igniting something.
  • noun An electrical system, typically powered by a battery or magneto, that provides the spark to ignite the fuel mixture in an internal-combustion engine.
  • noun A switch that activates this system.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of igniting, kindling, or setting on fire.
  • noun Means of igniting; provision for firing.
  • noun The state of being ignited; a burning.
  • noun In chem., the process of roasting or intensely heating a substance.
  • noun In internal-combustion motors, the setting fire to the mixture of air and hydrocarbon vapor in the cylinder, so that the air shall expand and increase its pressure and perform the work required.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of igniting, kindling, or setting on fire.
  • noun The state of being ignited or kindled.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of igniting.
  • noun The initiation of combustion.
  • noun A system for activating combustion in a combustion engine.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the process of initiating combustion or catching fire
  • noun the mechanism that ignites the fuel in an internal-combustion engine
  • noun the act of setting something on fire

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word ignition.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.