Word.ws English Dictionary

flame

/fleɪm/

flame noun: the visible part of fire; a stream of burning vapour or gas, emitting light and heat.

flame: the visible part of fire; a stream of burning vapour or gas, emitting light and heat
Image: Tbmynors, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

flame (countable and uncountable, plural flames)

  1. The visible part of fire; a stream of burning vapour or gas, emitting light and heat.
    • Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth[…].1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
    • The flames will then be joined together next week at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, the home of the Paralympics, and the united flame will make its final journey to London for the opening of the 14th Paralympic Games next Wednesday.2012 August 21, Alexandra Topping, “Paralympic flames light up countdown to biggest Games in history”, in The Guardian
  2. A romantic partner or lover in a usually short-lived but passionate affair.
    • I could copy out yards of rhapsody to Lord George Poynings, her old flame, in which she addressed him by the most affectionate names.1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Conclusion”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London...
  3. (Internet, dated) An aggressively insulting criticism or remark.
    • Flames are, unfortunately, a fact of USENET life. It's a rare USENET regular who hasn't been shaken to the foundations with anger at something some jerk has posted.1995, Paul McFedries, The Complete Idiot's Guide to USENET Newsgroups, Alpha Books, →ISBN, page 39
  4. A brilliant reddish orange-gold fiery colour.
    • [M]arked by myriad clouds of every sunset-colour - flame, purple, pink, green, violet, and all the tints of gold.1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, published 1993, page 73
  5. flame
  6. The contrasting light and dark figure seen in wood used for stringed instrument making; the curl.
    • The cello has a two-piece back with a beautiful narrow flame.
  7. Burning zeal, passion, imagination, excitement, or anger.
    • in a flame of zeal severe1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
    • where flames refin'd in breasts seraphic glow1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC
  8. (obsolete) A variety of carnation.
    • The Gardeners divide it into Five Claſſes, which they diſtinguiſh by the Name of Picketees, Painted Ladies, Beazarts, Flakes, and Flames: […] the Flames have a red Ground always ſtrip’d with black or very dark Colours.1718, Richard Bradley, “Part II. Chapter II: Of Perannual Flowers, the talleſt Blowers. Sect IX. Of the Carnation or July-Flower […] ”, in New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, Both...
    • Sic flow’rs o’ sorts ane seldom sees, / Flecks, flames, bussards an’ picketees, / Wi’ strong carnations, like young trees, / To face the entry; […]1812, Peter Forbes, “On going to see a nobleman’s gardener in the neighbourhood”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, Edinburgh: R. Menzies, page 89

Adjective

flame (not comparable)

  1. Of a brilliant reddish orange-gold colour, like that of a flame.

Verb

flame (third-person singular simple present flames, present participle flaming, simple past and past participle flamed)

  1. To produce flames; to burn with a flame or blaze.
    • The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make it flame again.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. To burst forth like flame; to break out in violence of passion; to be kindled with zeal or ardour.
    • He flamed with indignation.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter II, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and...
  3. (Internet, ambitransitive) To post a destructively critical or abusive message (to somebody).
    • I flamed him for spamming in my favourite newsgroup.
    • I wish you had the nerve to put your own name on that article, rather than logging into a public account to do it. I would have prefered^([sic]) to respond to you personally, rather than burden the net with my flaming, particularly since opinions like yours are best left ignored. But I feel I must...1983 October 20, Joe Ziegler, net.motss (Usenet)

flame meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

flame in Hindi

visible part of fire
लौ lau, ज्वाला jvālā, शोला śolā, लपट lapaṭ
to produce flames
जलाना jalānā

flame in Tamil

visible part of fire
பிழம்பு piḻampu

flame in Marathi

अग्निशिखा, ज्वाला, ज्योत

flame in Urdu

visible part of fire
شُعْلَہ śu'la, لَو lau, جَوالا javālā, لَپَٹ lapaṭ
More languagesFewer languages
flame in Bengali
শিখা śikha, জ্বালা jala
flame in Telugu
మంట maṇṭa
flame in Malayalam
തീജ്വാല, ഊഷ്മാവ്, രോഷം, വികാരതീക്ഷ്ണത
flame in Kannada
ನಾಲಗೆ nālage
flame in Punjabi
بھا bhā, اگ agg
flame in Gujarati
લાય lāy, જ્વાળા jvāḷā
flame in Odia
ଅଗ୍ନିଶିଖା
flame in Sanskrit
शोक śóka, ज्वाला jvālā, शुच् śúc, हरस् háras
flame in Sinhala
දැල්ල dælla
flame in Nepali
आगो āgo
flame in Pashto
شعله šu'la, شغله šuǧla, لمبه lamba
flame in Arabic
لَهَب lahab, شُعْلَة šuʕla
flame in Malay
api, nyala
flame in Indonesian
nyala
flame in Thai
เปลวไฟ bpleeo-fai, อัคนิคณะ àk-ní-ká-ná
flame in Vietnamese
ngọn lửa
flame in Myanmar
တန်ဆောင် tanhcaung

Examples of flame in a sentence

  • I'm sure I'll get flamed, since lots of folks seem to worship CF.)1989 June 29, Neil McAvoy [Wing Attack Plan R], rec.music.gdead (Usenet):
  • If he got flamed for his lies or his ignorance, he simply moved to another chat room.2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections:
  • Because online communication makes it easy to flame, many of us impetuously fire off messages that we later regret.2019, Steven McCornack, Kelly Morrison, Reflect & Relate, 5th edition:

All 40 example sentences with flame

Synonyms of flame

15 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of flame

Forms of flame

Noun
pluralflames
Verb
third-person singular presentflames
present participleflaming
past participleflamed
pastflamed

Past tense of flame: flamed

Plural of flame: flames

Origin of flame

From Middle English flawme, blend of Old French flame and flambe, flamble, the first from Latin flamma, the second from Latin flammula, diminutive of flamma, both from pre-Latin *fladma; Proto-Italic *flagmā, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shimmer, gleam, shine”). Displaced native Old English līeġ.

From Middle English flawmen, from Old French flamber, flammer.

Words formed from flame

Phrases with flame

35 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with flame

37 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about flame

What does flame mean?
Flame means the visible part of fire; a stream of burning vapour or gas, emitting light and heat.
What is flame in Hindi?
Flame in Hindi is लौ (lau), ज्वाला (jvālā), शोला (śolā). See Flame meaning in Hindi.
How do you use flame in a sentence?
I'm sure I'll get flamed, since lots of folks seem to worship CF.)
What part of speech is flame?
Flame can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce flame?
Flame is pronounced /fleɪm/.
What is the plural of flame?
The plural of flame is flames.

Words near flame in the dictionary

  1. flambés
  2. flamdoodle
  3. flamdoodled
  4. flamdoodles
  5. flamdoodling
  6. flame
  7. flame aura
  8. flame azalea
  9. flame bait
  10. flame birch
  11. flame cell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flame (page history and authors); flame (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flame (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ನಾಲಗೆ (Kannada) (page history and authors); اگ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); જ્વાળા (Gujarati) (page history and authors); flame (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ज्वल (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); आगो (Nepali) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-flame.wav.

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