Word.ws English Dictionary

smoulder

/ˈsməʊldə(ɹ)/

smoulder verb: to smother; to suffocate; to choke. Also the alternative form of smolder.

Verb

smoulder (third-person singular simple present smoulders, present participle smouldering, simple past and past participle smouldered)

  1. (transitive) To smother; to suffocate; to choke.
    • They preassed forward vnder their ensignes, bearing downe such as stoode in their way, and with their owne fire smouldered and burnt them to ashes1577, Raphael Holinshed, Historie of England
    • Time Which lays its hand on battlements and towers, And smoulders them all to dust has committed its ravages upon this ancient castle.1876, Rev. J. Bailey, “Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight”, in The Christian messenger, volume 12, page 35

Noun

smoulder

  1. (obsolete) smoke; smother
    • The smoulder stops our nose with stench.1573, George Gascoigne, A Hundreth Sundry Flowres
  2. A disease of narcissus and related flowers caused by the fungus Botrytis narcissicola, and characterized by dark brown lesions on the leaves.
    • When grown as ornamentals it is important to inspect crops and physically remove rogue cultivars and other off-types, but whatever narcissus are grown for they should be inspected for signs of stem nematod lesions ('spickels'), disease 'primaries' (such as smoulder) and virus symptoms.2002, Gordon R Hanks, Narcissus and Daffodil: The Genus Narcissus, page 116

Also used as

smoulder is also the alternative form of smolder.

Examples of smoulder in a sentence

  • Individual grievance will continue to smoulder him.1963, India. Parliament. Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Debates, page 7015:
  • Before kindling the fire of jealousy remember it will consume others afterwards but first it will fill your heart and soul with a suffocating bitter smoke and smoulder every pore of your body.2015, Gopal Das. Sonkia, 110 Lessions to Live Life Blooming:
  • In any event Scheurs (1997: 188) acknowledged that the Stockholm conference recognized and respected sovereignty but also mentioned that it sought to restrict it and not smoulder it.2019, Muhammed Haron, Connecting South-South Communities, page 287:

Forms of smoulder

third-person singular presentsmoulders
present participlesmouldering
past participlesmouldered
pastsmouldered

Words formed from smoulder

Words that rhyme with smoulder

Questions about smoulder

What does smoulder mean?
Smoulder means to smother; to suffocate; to choke.
How do you use smoulder in a sentence?
Individual grievance will continue to smoulder him.
What part of speech is smoulder?
Smoulder can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce smoulder?
Smoulder is pronounced /ˈsməʊldə(ɹ)/.
What is the past tense of smoulder?
The past tense of smoulder is smouldered.

Words near smoulder in the dictionary

  1. smouched
  2. smouches
  3. smouching
  4. Smouha
  5. Smouhas
  6. smoulder
  7. smouldered
  8. smoulderer
  9. smoulderers
  10. smouldering
  11. smoulderingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smoulder (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)-Vealhurl-smoulder.wav.

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