incense
/ˈɪnsɛn(t)s/
incense noun: biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt, often used in religious rites or for aesthetic reasons.
Noun
incense (countable and uncountable, plural incenses)
- Biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt, often used in religious rites or for aesthetic reasons.
- The fragrant smoke released by burning incense (sense 1).
- When the folding-doors were on such solemn occasions thrown open, and the new Abbot appeared on the threshold in full-blown dignity, with ring and mitre, and dalmatique and crosier, his hoary standard-bearers and his juvenile dispensers of incense preceding him, and the venerable train of monks...1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in The Abbot. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and...
- Homage; adulation.
Verb
incense (third-person singular simple present incenses, present participle incensing, simple past and past participle incensed)
- To set on fire; to inflame; to kindle; to burn.
- Twelve Trojan princes wait on thee, and labour to incense / Thy glorious heap of funeral.[1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer...
- To anger; to infuriate.
- I think it would incense him to learn the truth.
- His Grace the Duke of Wellington was incensed greatly, and as badge of dishonor ordered that a strip of cherry colored ribbon be sewed on their trowser seams.1909 December 1, “‘Traditions’”, in Fresno Herald and Democrat, last edition, volume XLI, number 1008, Fresno, Calif., →OCLC, page 4, column 2
- Synonyms:
- inflame, affront, aggravate, anger, antagonize, awrath, burn up, cheese off, cross, embitter
- To incite; to stimulate.
- Synonyms:
- provoke, abet, actuate, goose, fuel, light a fire under, send, sting, bring about, cheer
- To offer incense to.
- And after this Almachius hastily
Bad his ministres fecchen openly
Cecile, so that she mighte in his presence
Doon sacrifyce, and Iupiter encense.
And after this, Almachius hastily
Ordered his ministers to fetch publicly
Cecile, so that she might in his presence
Do sacrifice and burn incense to...late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Nun's Tale, The Canterbury Tales, line 410-413
- Synonyms:
- fume
- And after this Almachius hastily
- To perfume with, or as with, incense.
- To haue her bound, incenſed with wanton ſweetes, / Her vaines fild hie with heating delicates, / […] / O Ithaca can chaſteſt Penelope hold out.c. 1603 (date written), Iohn Marston, The Malcontent, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for William Aspley, […], published 1604, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii
- Neither, for the future, shall any man or woman, self-styled noble, be incensed,—foolishly fumigated with incense, in Church; as the wont has been.1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number)
incense meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
incense in Hindi
- material burnt for fragrant smoke
- अगरबत्ती agarbattī, धूपबत्ती dhūpbattī
incense in Tamil
- material burnt for fragrant smoke
- ஊதுபத்தி ūtupatti
incense in Marathi
- धूप, धूपा, धूप लावणे
incense in Urdu
- material burnt for fragrant smoke
- بخور buxūr
More languagesFewer languages
- incense in Bengali
- ধূপ dhup
- incense in Telugu
- ధూపము dhūpamu
- incense in Malayalam
- ധൂപവർഗ്ഗം, ധൂപം
- incense in Kannada
- ಧೂಪದ ವಸ್ತು, ಪರಿಮಳದ್ರವ್ಯ, ಸುಗಂಧ ದ್ರವ್ಯ, ಸಾಂಬ್ರಾಣಿ
- incense in Punjabi
- ਧੂਪ, ਧੂਪ ਲਾਉਣਾ
- incense in Gujarati
- ધૂપ dhūp
- incense in Odia
- ଧୂପ, ଧୂପ-ଧୂପ
- incense in Sanskrit
- धूप dhūpa
- incense in Tagalog
- dupa, insenso, astangi
- incense in Arabic
- بَخُور baḵūr, بُخُور buḵūr
- incense in Malay
- dupa, kemenyan, setanggi
- incense in Indonesian
- kemenyan, dupa
- incense in Persian
- عود 'ud, بخور boxur
- incense in Thai
- กำยาน gam-yaan, ธูป tûup
- incense in Vietnamese
- hương, nhang
- incense in Myanmar
- အမွှေး a.hmwe:
- Dzongkha
- སྤོས spos
Examples of incense in a sentence
- You behaviour so incensed me that I even thought of firing you.
- The Shinto priest burnt incense for his ancestors.
- She claims that incense is a natural mood lightener.
Synonyms of incense
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of incense
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | incenses |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | incenses |
| present participle | incensing |
| past participle | incensed |
| past | incensed |
Origin of incense
From Middle English encens, from Old French encens (“sweet-smelling substance”) from Late Latin incensum (“burnt incense”, literally “something burnt”), neuter past participle of incendō (“to set on fire”). Compare incendiary. Doublet of incienso. Displaced native Old English rēcels.
Words formed from incense
Phrases with incense
Questions about incense
- What does incense mean?
- Incense means biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt, often used in religious rites or for aesthetic reasons.
- What is incense in Hindi?
- Incense in Hindi is अगरबत्ती (agarbattī), धूपबत्ती (dhūpbattī). See Incense meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is incense?
- Incense can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce incense?
- Incense is pronounced /ˈɪnsɛn(t)s/.
- What is the plural of incense?
- The plural of incense is incenses.
Words near incense in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incense (page history and authors); incense (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ధూపము (Telugu) (page history and authors); incense (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); incense (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incense (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ધૂપ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); incense (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-incense-noun.ogg.
Cite this entry: “incense.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incense. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.