Inflamed

How to spell inflamed

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce inflamed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inflamed mean?

1. adjectiveRed, hot, swollen or painful as a result of injury, infection or irritation.
2. adjectiveRoused to intense or angry emotion; greatly agitated.

Inflamed in a sentence

• The doctor said the inflamed joint would need rest and ice.

• The inflamed crowd refused to leave until their demands were met.

• Her inflamed throat made it hard to swallow for several days.

• His inflamed temper cost him the negotiation.

Where does inflamed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb inflammare, which literally meant 'to set on fire' or 'to kindle into a blaze', formed from the prefix in- (here meaning 'into' or simply intensifying) and flamma, the ordinary Latin word for 'flame'. The same flamma root still glows inside everyday words such as 'flame', 'flammable' and 'flamboyant'. English took the word in through Old French enflammer during the 1300s, and it carried both the literal sense of burning and a vivid figurative sense of stirring strong feeling, as when passions or tempers are 'set alight'. By the later medieval period it had also gathered its medical meaning, describing flesh that becomes red, hot and swollen as though it were burning. The spelling keeps a single m even though the heat of the word might tempt a writer toward a double, because the Latin flamma was simplified on its way through French.

How the word is built

• in- (into, intensifying)
• flam (from Latin flamma: flame, fire)
• -ed (past/adjective suffix)