flammable
/ˈflæməbl̩/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.17 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
adj
Very likely to cause fighting or controversy; extremely contentious.
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonym: ignitable"
- "flammable liquid"
- "In considering the possible commitment of U.S. forces to South Vietnam , the Joint Chiefs of Staff have reviewed the overall critical situation in Southeast Asia with particular emphasis upon the present highly flammable situation in South Vietnam."
- "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."
- "King's words touch on a higher law of leadership, that the solution to a sensitive and highly contentious and even flammable situation often lies in doing the opposite of what is expected and even perceived as normal or 'natural'."
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-.
Inflected Forms
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
Antonyms
inflammable[contranym]]ic senses>
non-flammable
nonflammable
noninflammable
unflammable
uninflammable
fireproof
incombustible