Word.ws English Dictionary

fornace

fornace is the obsolete spelling of furnace.

Meaning of furnace

Noun

furnace (plural furnaces)

  1. An industrial heating device, such as for smelting metal or firing ceramics.
    • Plans for the next phase include furnaces capable of inert atmospheres and partial vacuums.
  2. (Canada, US) A device that provides heat for a building.
    • HVAC services include furnace maintenance.
  3. (colloquial, figuratively) Any area that is excessively hot.
    • The busy kitchen became a sweltering furnace.
  4. (figuratively) A place or time of punishment, affliction, or great trial; severe experience or discipline.
    • forged in the furnace of fierce competition

See all 7 meanings of furnace

Forms of fornace

pluralfornaces

Questions about fornace

What is fornace the obsolete spelling of?
Fornace is the obsolete spelling of furnace.

Words near fornace in the dictionary

  1. formæ
  2. formé
  3. formée
  4. forn
  5. Fornacalia
  6. fornace
  7. fornacite
  8. Fornax
  9. forncast
  10. Forncett
  11. forne

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fornace (page history and authors); furnace (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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Cite this entry: “fornace.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fornace. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.