Tinder

How to spell tinder

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tinder

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tinder mean?

1. nounDry, easily flammable material used to catch a spark and start a fire.

Tinder in a sentence

• He gathered dry leaves and bark to use as tinder for the campfire.

• The parched summer hills turned the whole forest into tinder waiting for a stray spark.

Where does tinder come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Tinder comes from the Old English word tynder, meaning the dry, easily ignited material used to catch a spark and start a fire. It traces back to a Germanic root connected to the verb meaning 'to kindle' or 'to set alight', a relative of words found across the old Germanic languages for things that burn readily. For centuries tinder named the scrap of charred cloth, dried fungus, or shredded wood that a flint and steel were struck against, which is why the small box that held it was called a tinderbox. The spelling settled with an 'i' early on, distinguishing it from the unrelated word 'tender', and the modern figurative sense of a situation 'ready to burst into flames' grew naturally from that flammable origin. The trap for writers is purely the vowel: it sounds like a schwa next to the 'n', tempting the look-alike spelling 'tender'.

How the word is built

• tind (from Old English tynder: kindling)
• -er (noun ending)