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flammable

adj
/ˈflæməbəl/

Etymology

Back-formation from inflammable, which is used to avoid confusion with non-flammable, as the prefix in- is often used to mean "un-; non-", although it was originally meant in a sense closely related to en-.

Definitions

  1. Capable of burning.

    • Near-synonym: ignitable
    • flammable liquid

  2. Easily set on fire.

    • Near-synonym: ignitable

  3. Very likely to cause fighting or controversy

    Very likely to cause fighting or controversy; extremely contentious.

    • They could stuff their ears with cotton, but they could not, after all, fight such flammable ideas ( at least not in the public squares where Attucks's war whoops could still be heard ).
    • With her play Diamond Lil, she discovered a way to sneak her flammable subject matter past the censors.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Any flammable substance.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for flammable. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA