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Meaning & use

fiery crash

noun·Advanced

Last updated

UK/ˌfaɪəri ˈkræʃ/
US/ˌfaɪəri ˈkræʃ/

Meanings

  1. nouncountable

    A road or air accident in which a vehicle bursts into flames.

    Grammar: Countable, so you can say 'a fiery crash' or 'two fiery crashes'.

    Patterns

    • a fiery crash on a highway
    • die in a fiery crash
    • a fiery crash involving two cars

    The truck left the road and ended in a fiery crash against a bridge pillar.

    Two people survived the fiery crash after bystanders pulled them from the burning car.

    News reports described a fiery crash that closed the highway for hours.

  2. nouncountableinformal

    Used in news writing for any dramatic collision that produces flames and thick smoke.

    Grammar: Mainly a journalism phrase; in everyday speech people just say 'a bad crash' or 'a fire'.

    Patterns

    • a fiery crash scene
    • a fiery crash landing

    The paper ran the story under the headline 'Fiery Crash on Route 9'.

    A fiery crash landing destroyed the small plane, but all aboard escaped.

Word forms

pluralfiery crashes

Common combinations

die in a fiery crash
The driver died in a fiery crash on the interstate.
a fiery crash scene
Firefighters worked for an hour at the fiery crash scene.
a fiery crash landing
The pilot managed a fiery crash landing in an empty field.
a fiery crash involving a truck
Police are investigating a fiery crash involving a truck and a bus.

Synonyms and how they differ

blaze
A blaze is the fire itself, not the accident; you can say a crash caused a blaze.
collision
Collision is the neutral, official word for the impact and says nothing about flames.
wreck
Wreck is more informal and can mean the ruined vehicle rather than the event.

Word family

fiery adjective
Burning or full of flames; also used for a hot temper.
fire noun
The flames and heat produced by burning.
crash noun
A violent hit or collision, with or without fire.

Commonly confused: fiery crash or firey? fiery crash or fury?

fiery crash vs firey

A common misspelling; the correct spelling is 'fiery'.

fiery crash vs fury

Fury means extreme anger, so it sounds similar but has nothing to do with flames.

Practice

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