igneous
adjective
Simple meaning
Produced by fire or intense heat.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
igneeuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɪɡniəs
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.
adjective
geology
Produced by the action of fire or intense heat
geology
Resulting from, or produced by, great heat. With rocks, it could also mean formed from lava or magma.
geology
Produced under conditions involving intense heat; especially from molten magma"
Pertaining to or having the nature of fire; containing fire; resembling fire.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Produced by the action of fire or intense heat
Used this way, igneous is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use igneous
- “Igneous rock is rock formed by solidification from a molten state.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Rock formed by the solidification of molten magma.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: produced by the action of fire or intense heat
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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.