incendiary

Meanings

1. 1adjectivebefore a nountechnical

   Made or used to start a fire.

   Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: an incendiary device.

   Police found an incendiary device near the warehouse.

   The attack used incendiary bombs.

   Investigators said the blaze was caused by an incendiary substance.

2. 2adjectivecomparablefigurative

   Likely to stir up anger, hatred or violent reaction.

   Grammar: Describes speech, writing or ideas: an incendiary speech.

   The politician's incendiary speech sparked a riot.

   Editors removed the incendiary comments from the post.

   She wrote an incendiary letter attacking the board.

3. 3nouncountabletechnical

   A bomb or device that starts fires.

   Grammar: Plural is incendiaries.

   The plane dropped incendiaries on the depot.

   Bomb disposal experts found an incendiary in the trunk.

   Wartime museums display old incendiaries.

Word forms

Common combinations

incendiary device

A small incendiary device started the fire.

incendiary remarks

His incendiary remarks angered the crowd.

incendiary rhetoric

Incendiary rhetoric raised tensions in the city.

incendiary bomb

Incendiary bombs destroyed the old district.

incendiary language

Moderators banned incendiary language from the forum.

Synonyms and how they differ

inflammatory

Inflammatory is the usual word for angry speech, while incendiary is stronger and can also be literal.

provocative

Provocative may just be daring or teasing, while incendiary suggests real danger.

explosive

Explosive suggests sudden violence, while incendiary suggests slow-spreading anger.

Opposites

Word family

incendiarism noun

deliberate setting of fires

incendiary noun

a fire-starting bomb

incinerate verb

to burn something to ashes

Commonly confused: incendiary or insidious?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “incendiary”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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