Torches

How to spell torches

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce torches

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does torches mean?

1. nounPortable lights, either burning brands or, in British use, battery-powered hand lamps.
2. verbSets something on fire deliberately.

Torches in a sentence

• noun

  The campers packed two torches in case the trail grew dark.

• verb

  The report claims he torches his own warehouse to collect the insurance.

• noun

  The medieval banquet was lit by torches mounted along the stone walls.

• verb

  Every autumn the council torches the dry brush to prevent wildfires.

Where does torches come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Old French 'torche', which named a twist of straw or tow dipped in wax or resin so that it could be carried and burned for light. That French noun traces back to the Latin verb 'torquere', meaning 'to twist', the same root that gives us 'torque' and 'distort'; the connection makes sense because the earliest torches were literally twisted fibres bound together. English adopted the singular 'torch' in the 1200s, and the regular plural and verb forms followed naturally by adding -es after the soft 'ch' ending. Over time the meaning broadened from the burning brand to any portable light, and in British usage 'torch' came to mean a battery-powered hand light that Americans call a flashlight. The verb sense, 'to set something alight', grew out of the original act of putting a flame to a torch, and the spelling stays steady throughout because the -es ending is the standard pattern for words ending in -ch.

How the word is built

• torch (twisted bundle that burns)
• -es (plural / third-person singular suffix)