How to use ignite in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb
Ignite means to set fire to (something), to light (something). Example: “Thoughts of what he had to do tomorrow ignited a flutter to get ready.”
Examples of ignite by meaning
verbTo spark off (something), to trigger.
- ignite someone's interest
- Their blend of concert harp, vibes, bass and Latin percussion ignited much of the audience.1980 February 16, Althea, “Teresa Trull and Julie Homi with the Harp Band [review]”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 29, page 13
verbTo subject to the action of intense heat; to heat strongly; often said of incombustible or infusible substances.
- to ignite iron or platinum
More sentences with ignite
- Thoughts of what he had to do tomorrow ignited a flutter to get ready.From the entry flutter
- When you press this button, the pilot flame should ignite.From the entry should
- White phosphorus ignites on contact with the air.From the entry on contact
- OpenAI, which ignited the boom, continues to set the pace in many ways.2025 December 11, Charlie Campbell, Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo, “The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year”, in Time. From the entry set the pace
- Ring also gives fire damage and ignite chance, which is great.2023 July 30, u/tokyo__driftwood, “How are we feeling about Earthquake ignite chieftain post-patch?”, in Reddit, r/PathOfExileBuilds…. From the entry cook
- Given the splendid opportunity of his marriage bed, she hadn't ignited.2017, T. Gertler, Elbowing the Seducer. From the entry passionproof
- The chance of igniting hydrogen while jumpstarting a vehicle is about one in a brazillion.2013 January 22, Eiron, “battery boost”, in rec.motorcycles (Usenet). From the entry brazillion
- The materials released did not ignite before the deluge system was manually activated, controlling the incident.2009 January 13, National Transportation Safety Board, “Earlier Western Accidents”, in Special Investigation Report: Mobile Acetylene…. From the entry deluge
- When the spoon goes back into the sauceboat, its contents ignite immediately.2006 July, “Ice Cream: Some Great Stops, from Parlors to Gelaterias”, in Rebecca Burns, editor, Atlanta, volume 46, number 3, Atlanta…. From the entry alaska
- 'Whoop-de-doo!', yelled a surprised Conrad as the large engine ignited in front of them.2001, David J. Shayler, Gemini. From the entry whoop-de-doo
- Take a bottle full of H2 and O2 and ignite it.1999 June 2, OHANNON, “Energy from water...”, in sci.energy.hydrogen (Usenet), archived from the original on 17 Jan 2026. From the entry monsir
- The idea that the body could spontaneously ignite was promoted by the 19th-century temperance movement.1998 May 26, C. Claiborne Ray, “Q&A; Spontaneous Combustion”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Nov 2023. From the entry spontaneously
- First, open flames, flying sparks and hot surfaces can ignite flammable gases and vapors.1994, John F. Rekus, Complete Confined Spaces Handbook, page 304. From the entry hot work
- The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land.1991 May 4, George H. W. Bush, “President George H.W. Bush's commencement address at the University of Michigan”, in The Michigan Daily. From the entry political correctness
- This detonator is readily ignited by laser energy but is relatively insensitive to other stimuli.1981, NASA Tech Briefs, volume 6, page 24. From the entry styphnate
- If this gas ignites, it'll blow you to kingdom come, you venal viper!1966 January 13, Lorenzo Semple Jr., “Smack in the Middle”, in Robert Butler, director, Batman, season 1, episode 2, spoken by Batman…. From the entry blow to kingdom come
- If ignited by lightning or other agencies during dry spells these will suffer damage to 'rat populations.1949, Ted O'Neil, The Muskrat in the Louisiana Coastal Marshes: A Study of the Ecological, Geological, Biological, Tidal and Climatic…. From the entry 'rat
- This dust cloud was ignited by an arc at the wheels.1936 July, W. J. Fene, C. W. Owings, “Cases of Explosions in Tipples and Cleaning Plants”, in Explosions of Coal Dust in Tipples and…. From the entry lorry
- Beijing’s bureaucrats may claim they are preventing fires, but what they are really igniting is resentment, sorrow, and resistance.2025 December 16, Lopsang Gurung (pseudonym), “Golog Prefecture, Qinghai Province: Beijing’s Bonfire of Tibetan Prayer Flags”, in Bitter…. From the entry sorrow
- Democrats have long sought to ignite their own messages online.2023 July 18, Jess Bidgood, “Ron DeSantis wants to make his mark online, but is it paying off?”, in Boston Globe (subscription). From the entry Dark Brandon
- A feud ignited, resulting in the Battle of Skunktown.”2021 April 18, Christy Stratton & Erin Wagoner, “Hoot 'N Haw” (1:33 from the start), in Bless the Harts, season 2, episode 18, spoken by…. From the entry 'tween
- Flames raced up the rows, blistering and charring and igniting ancient wood that erupted in a white-hot flare of heat.2017, Brad Abraham, Magicians Impossible: A Novel, St. Martin's Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 352. From the entry white-hot
- To expand his mind would exhaust what little strength he still had and ignite the brain storm that had finally passed.2015, Tony Bertauski, Ashes of Foreverland: A Science Fiction Thriller. From the entry brain storm
- We used a low-pressure (0.1 mbar) hydrogen-argon mixture (10% H₂) with dc plasma ignited between two aluminum electrodes.2009 January 30, D. C. Elias et al., “Control of Graphene's Properties by Reversible Hydrogenation: Evidence for Graphane”, in Science…. From the entry dc
- She did not squint not as the sun crept through the Venetian blinds and seemed to ignite her already-luminous smaragdine eyes.2007, Brite Templeton, Under Aldebaran, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 27. From the entry smaragdine
- It has ignited what has been dubbed the "Blue Revolution."2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, Illusion of Order. From the entry Blue Revolution
- Teen-age hoods steal cars in cities, take them into the pines, strip them, ignite them, and leave the scene.1968, John McPhee, chapter 7, in The Pine Barrens. From the entry hood
- The rial devalued, inflation soared, investment declined and Iranians felt worse off—the same ailments that have helped ignite the past two weeks of protests.2026 January 13, Andrew England, “Iran's stuttering economy sows seeds of unrest”, in Financial Times, page 3. From the entry rial
- It’s been nearly a decade since Zootopia‘s buddy-cop metaphor for prejudice and racism ignited a firestorm of thinkpieces about the limits of allegory.2025 November 25, Caroline Siede, “Zootopia 2 is a stagnant sequel with one stellar subplot”, in AV Club. From the entry thinkpiece
- As nuclear fusion ignites at the centre of an infant star, the outer regions of the gas cloud that formed it are still falling inwards.2022, Charles Liu, The Cosmos Explained. From the entry infant star
- This phobia combines with society's ignorance about it, in a way that fuels and ignites the strength that participates in shaping transwomanhood.2019, Jamie A. Thomas, Christina Jackson, Embodied Difference: Divergent Bodies in Public Discourse, page 66. From the entry transwomanhood
- The molten rock in the sills may have ignited vast reserves of shallowly buried natural gas, much like a match applied to a gas barbecue.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 55. From the entry sill
- But the material was flammable, and it ignited when it was blown over a hot electric light, the Shihlin District Court said in its ruling.2016 April 26, Austin Ramzy, “Taiwan Party Organizer Sentenced to Nearly 5 Years in Water Park Fire”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry Shihlin
- Katherine Crockett failed to ignite the big solo in which the title character relishes the ax she will use to commit mariticide.2014 March 20, Alastair Macaulay, “Tales of Legends and Curiosities”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company…. From the entry mariticide
- This act was the "match that ignited the great tinderbox of fuel" that had been building for years between many of the countries in Europe.2010, H. S. Haskell, Sagebrush Or Gold Dust, page 291. From the entry tinderbox
- The Christmas trees of neighborhood residents are piled high and then ignited – under the watchful eye of the Alton Fire Department, of course.2010, John J. Dunphy, From Christmas to Twelfth Night in Southern Illinois, Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, →ISBN, pages 128 and 130. From the entry Twelfth Night
- A blown-out shot of explosives that was stemmed with coal dust, or an underburdened shot of explosives could have ignited the coal dust.2006, Robert E Hartley, David Kenney, Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters, →ISBN. From the entry underburdened
Meaning of ignite
- verb To set fire to (something), to light (something).
- verb To spark off (something), to trigger.
- verb To commence burning.
Questions about ignite in a sentence
- How do you use ignite in a sentence?
- Ignite is used as a verb. For example: “Thoughts of what he had to do tomorrow ignited a flutter to get ready.”
- What is a short sentence with ignite?
- “ignite someone's interest”
- What does ignite mean?
- Ignite means to set fire to (something), to light (something).
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ignite (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use ignite in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/ignite. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
