Word.ws English Dictionary

burnt offering

Syllables: burnt of·fer·ingUK/bɜːnt ˈɒfəɹɪŋ//bɝnt ˈɔfəɹɪŋ/

burnt offering noun: a slaughtered animal offered and burnt on an altar as an atonement for sin.

Noun

burnt offering (plural burnt offerings)

  1. A slaughtered animal offered and burnt on an altar as an atonement for sin.
    • […] Job ſent for them, and clenſed them agayne, ſtode vp early, and offred for eueryone a brẽtofferinge [brentofferinge].1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Job j:[5], folio i...
    • When they faſt I will not heare their crie, and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation I wil not accept them: but I will conſume them by the ſword, and by the famine, and by the peſtilence.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 14:12, column 2
  2. (broadly) Any similar sacrifice to a deity or deities, or to a deceased person.
  3. (humorous) Overcooked food that is nevertheless served.
    • A cooler oven would give heavy, doughy loaves while a hotter oven would provide the family with the inevitable burnt offerings.1991, Sara Minwel Tibbott, Baking in Wales, page 21

burnt offering meaning in Tamil and Sanskrit

burnt offering in Tamil

தகனபலி, ஆவிப்பலி

burnt offering in Sanskrit

a burnt offering, oblation with fire, sacrifice
होत्र hotrá

Forms of burnt offering

pluralburnt offerings

Origin of burnt offering

PIE word *h₁epi From Middle English brend offring, brend offringe, from brend (past participle of brennen (“to burn”)) + offring, offringe (“presentation of something as a religious offering; offering presented to God or another deity”), used in biblical texts to translate Late Latin holocaustum (“burnt offering wholly consumed by fire”) in the Vulgate version of the Bible. The English term is analysable as burnt + offering.

Questions about burnt offering

What does burnt offering mean?
Burnt offering means a slaughtered animal offered and burnt on an altar as an atonement for sin.
What is burnt offering in Tamil?
Burnt offering in Tamil is தகனபலி, ஆவிப்பலி. See Burnt offering meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is burnt offering?
Burnt offering is a noun.
How do you pronounce burnt offering?
Burnt offering is pronounced /bɜːnt ˈɒfəɹɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of burnt offering?
The plural of burnt offering is burnt offerings.

Words near burnt offering in the dictionary

  1. burnt knight
  2. burnt knights
  3. burnt lime
  4. Burnt Oak
  5. burnt off
  6. burnt offering
  7. burnt offerings
  8. burnt one down
  9. burnt one's boats
  10. burnt one's bridges
  11. burnt one's fingers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burnt offering (page history and authors); burnt offering (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); होत्र (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-burnt offering.oga.

Cite this entry: “burnt offering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/burnt_offering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.