combustion
noun
Simple meaning
A process in which a substance reacts with oxygen to give heat and light.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhmbuhschuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kəmˈbʌstʃən
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A process in which a substance reacts with oxygen to give heat and light
A process wherein a fuel is combined with oxygen, usually at high temperature, releasing heat.
A process whereby two chemicals are combined to produce heat.
chemistry
The act or process of burning.
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 process in which a substance reacts with oxygen to give heat and light
Used this way, combustion 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 combustion
- “Combustion grew until revolt was unavoidable.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A heat engine in which ignition occurs outside the chamber (cylinder or turbine) in which heat is converted to mechanical energy.
An internal-combustion engine in which an explosive mixture is drawn into the cylinder on the first stroke and is compressed and ignited on the second stroke.
A heat engine in which combustion occurs inside the engine rather than in a separate furnace.
The combustion of fuel inside a cylinder (as in an internal-combustion engine).
Ignition of a substance (as oily rags) resulting from an internal oxidation process.
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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.