incinerate

verb

in·​cin·​er·​ate in-ˈsi-nə-ˌrāt How to pronounce incinerate (audio)
incinerated; incinerating

transitive verb

: to cause to burn to ashes
incineration noun

Examples of incinerate in a Sentence

The waste is incinerated in a large furnace.
Recent Examples on the Web Several nearby ranches have loaned out tractors and other heavy equipment needed to pile up and transport the corpses of cattle before they're buried or incinerated. Christopher Cann, USA TODAY, 6 Mar. 2024 The comic absurdity of taking delight in an art work that won’t be seen and that may even be incinerated was not lost on the artist. Nadia Beard, The New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2024 Poor farmers living in the mountains had been displaced; animals including birds, mammals and small snakes had been incinerated; and swaths of the forest had been decimated. Genevieve Glatsky, New York Times, 30 Jan. 2024 The researchers based their findings on tissue samples from a dozen killer whales that washed ashore in British Columbia between 2006 and 2018, before record-breaking wildfires incinerated vast areas of California and the Pacific Northwest in recent years. Bloomberg, The Mercury News, 9 Jan. 2024 And Oppenheimer’s really happened: those cities were incinerated; those 200,000 lives were lost. Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 29 Jan. 2024 Communication failures so extreme that, for hours, Maui’s mayor appeared unaware that fire was incinerating Lahaina. Mike Baker, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2023 White phosphorus fell onto several homes and ignited fires, incinerating furniture and stripping appliances to scorched metal. Meg Kelly, Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2023 Of the more than 1,400 dead, there are about 200 bodies that forensic pathologists have been unable to identify because they were mutilated or incinerated. Kevin Sieff, Washington Post, 31 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'incinerate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Medieval Latin incineratus, past participle of incinerare, from Latin in- + ciner-, cinis ashes; akin to Greek konis dust, ashes

First Known Use

1555, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of incinerate was in 1555

Dictionary Entries Near incinerate

Cite this Entry

“Incinerate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incinerate. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

incinerate

verb
in·​cin·​er·​ate in-ˈsin-ə-ˌrāt How to pronounce incinerate (audio)
incinerated; incinerating
: to burn to ashes
incineration noun

Medical Definition

incinerate

transitive verb
in·​cin·​er·​ate in-ˈsin-ə-ˌrāt How to pronounce incinerate (audio)
incinerated; incinerating
: to cause to burn to ashes
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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