Word.ws English Dictionary

set alight

set alight verb: to cause (something) to begin to burn.

Verb

set alight (third-person singular simple present sets alight, present participle setting alight, simple past and past participle set alight)

  1. (transitive) To cause (something) to begin to burn.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To arouse passion in (someone); to excite.
    • Each chapel had its saintly shrine, hung around with offerings; its picture above the altar, although closely veiled, if by any painter of renown; and its hallowed tapers, burning continually, to set alight the devotion of the worshippers.1860, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Burial Chant”, in The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni. […], volume I, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 227

Synonyms of set alight

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of set alight

third-person singular presentsets alight
present participlesetting alight
past participleset alight
pastset alight

Questions about set alight

What does set alight mean?
Set alight means to cause (something) to begin to burn.
What part of speech is set alight?
Set alight is a verb.
What is the past tense of set alight?
The past tense of set alight is set alight.

Words near set alight in the dictionary

  1. set adrift
  2. set afire
  3. set after
  4. set against
  5. set ahead
  6. set alight
  7. set an example
  8. Set animal
  9. Set animals
  10. set apart
  11. set aright

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: set alight (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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