Flaming

How to spell flaming

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce flaming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does flaming mean?

1. adjectiveBurning with flames, or vividly bright like fire.
2. adjectiveUsed informally to add emphasis or annoyance, similar to 'blasted'.
3. nounThe act of posting angry or insulting messages online.

Flaming in a sentence

• adjective

  Firefighters pulled the family from the flaming building.

• adjective

  He lost his flaming keys again just before the meeting.

• noun

  The forum banned users for flaming after several heated threads.

• adjective

  The sunset turned the sky a flaming shade of orange.

• adjective

  The whole flaming printer jammed during the deadline.

• noun

  Moderators warned that flaming would not be tolerated in the chat.

Where does flaming come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin flamma, meaning a flame or blaze, which itself grew from an older root flagrare, 'to burn or blaze'. The noun passed into Old French as flambe and flame, and English took it up around the 1300s as both the noun 'flame' and the verb 'to flame', meaning to burn brightly. Adding the present participle ending -ing produced 'flaming', first used literally of things actually on fire and of vivid, fiery colours. From the bright, hot image came a long-standing British colloquial use as a mild intensifier, much like 'blazing' or 'blasted'. In the late twentieth century the same word gained a new life online, where 'flaming' describes the heated, hostile messages people fire off in arguments; that sense plays directly on the idea of burning anger.

How the word is built

• flame (from Latin flamma, a flame)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)