Meaning & use
flame
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
The bright, hot, moving part of a fire that you can see rising from burning material.
Grammar: Countable for single tongues of fire (a flickering flame); uncountable in phrases like in flame.
Patterns
- the flame of something
- a flame flickers
The candle flame shook whenever someone opened the door.
Turn the flame down before the sauce burns.
Flames leapt from the roof of the old barn.
nouncountableinformal
A former or current romantic partner, usually mentioned with old.
Grammar: Usually appears as old flame: she met an old flame at the reunion.
Patterns
- an old flame
He bumped into an old flame at the airport.
She still sends a card to her high-school flame every year.
nouncountableinformalcomputing
An angry or insulting message posted online, usually in reply to someone else's post.
Grammar: Often plural in the phrase flame war: the thread turned into a stream of flames.
Patterns
- a flame war
His clumsy post drew a pile of flames within minutes.
The forum moderators deleted the flames and locked the thread.
verbintransitiveliterary
To burn brightly, or to suddenly show strong feeling such as anger on your face or in your voice.
Grammar: No object: her cheeks flamed with embarrassment.
Patterns
- flame with something
The sky flamed orange at sunset.
His face flamed when the teacher read out his mistake.
Word forms
| plural | flames |
|---|---|
| third person singular | flames |
| past tense | flamed |
| -ing form | flaming |
Common combinations
- burst into flames
- The car burst into flames after the crash.
- fan the flames
- His angry reply only fanned the flames of the argument.
- naked flame
- No naked flames are allowed near the fuel store.
- go up in flames
- Years of work went up in flames when the studio burned down.
- flickering flame
- A flickering flame was the only light in the cabin.
Synonyms and how they differ
- blaze
- A blaze is a large, strong fire as a whole, while a flame is just the visible burning part of it.
- fire
- Fire names the whole burning event or material, whereas flame points only to the glowing tongue of light you see.
- inferno
- Inferno is much stronger and suggests a huge, out-of-control fire rather than a single flame.
Word family
- flaming adjective
- burning brightly, or used informally for emphasis
- flammable adjective
- easily set on fire
- inflame verb
- make feelings stronger or a body part sore
- flamboyant adjective
- showy and colorful in style
Commonly confused: flame or flammable?
flame vs flammable
Flame is the visible fire itself; flammable describes materials that catch fire easily.
Practice
Which sentence uses flame in its romantic sense?
Choose one answer.
An old flame is a former romantic partner. The other options use flame for fire, or loosely for online anger, which would need flame war.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “flame”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.