Ignition

How to spell ignition

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ignition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ignition mean?

1. nounThe act or process of setting something alight or starting combustion.
2. nounThe system in a vehicle that produces the spark to start the engine, or the switch that activates it.

Ignition in a sentence

• The chemist recorded the exact temperature of ignition for each fuel.

• She turned the key in the ignition and the car rumbled to life.

• A single spark caused the ignition of the spilled petrol.

• The mechanic replaced a faulty ignition coil during the service.

Where does ignition come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun ignis, meaning 'fire', which also gives us 'igneous' rock formed from cooled lava. From ignis came the verb ignire, 'to set on fire', and its past participle stem ignit- produced the medieval Latin ignitionem, describing the act of setting alight. English picked the word up in the early 1600s, at first in alchemical and scientific writing for heating a substance until it glowed. Over time the sense narrowed to the kindling of combustion, and in the twentieth century it attached firmly to engines, where the ignition is the system that sparks the fuel into life. The buried Latin ignis explains the spelling: the silent-feeling 'gn' cluster and the '-tion' ending both come straight from that fiery root.

How the word is built

• ignit- (from Latin ignire 'to set on fire', from ignis 'fire')
• -ion (noun suffix forming the action or result)