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blaze

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Intense, direct light accompanied with heat.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

blayz
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbleɪz

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A fire, especially a fast-burning fire producing a lot of flames and light.

  2. Intense, direct light accompanied with heat.

  3. A high-visibility orange colour, typically used in warning signs and hunters' clothing.

  4. The white or lighter-coloured markings on a horse's face.

  5. A spot made on trees by chipping off a piece of the bark, usually as a surveyor's mark.

  6. Publication; the act of spreading widely by report.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To be on fire, especially producing bright flames.

  2. intransitive

    To send forth or reflect a bright light; shine like a flame.

  3. transitive

    To cause to shine forth; exhibit vividly; be resplendent with.

  4. transitive

    To indicate or mark out (a trail, especially through vegetation) by a series of blazes.

  5. transitiveonly in the past participle

    To mark with a white spot on the face (as a horse).

  6. transitive

    To set a mark on (as a tree, usually by cutting off a piece of its bark).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A fire, especially a fast-burning fire producing a lot of flames and light.

Used this way, blaze is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use blaze

  • “They chipped off bark to mark the trail with blazes.”noun
  • “The spaceship blazed out into space.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Fire / strong

bright blaze

High

sudden blaze

Light

great blaze

Other combinations

full blazecheerful blazesilver blazeblaze likered blaze

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • blazernounInflected form

    Lightweight single-breasted jacket.

  • blazingnounInflected form

    A strong flame that burns brightly.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • blaze outverbCompound term

    Move rapidly and as if blazing.

  • blaze awayverbCompound term

    Perform (an acting passage) brilliantly and rapidly.

  • blaze upverbCompound term

    Burn brightly.

  • blazing starnounCompound term

    Biennial of southwestern United States having white stems and toothed leaves that is grown for its large pale yellow flowers that open in early morning.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.