conflagration
pronunciation
How to pronounce conflagration in British English:
UK [ˌkɒnfləˈgreɪʃn]
How to pronounce conflagration in American English:
US [ˌkɑnfləˈgreɪʃn]
-
- Noun:
- a very intense and uncontrolled fire
Word Origin
- conflagration
- conflagration: see flagrant
- conflagration (n.)
- 1550s, from Middle French conflagration (16c.) or directly from Latin conflagrationem (nominative conflagratio), present participle of conflagrare "to burn up," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + flagrare "to burn" (see flagrant).
Example
- 1. Can the eurozone 's firewall contain the conflagration ?
- 2. What was once a crisis in small peripheral countries has become a conflagration .
- 3. But the gas boom that the world is currently experiencing is a conflagration to be celebrated .
- 4. Credit default swaps are the rocket fuel that turned the subprime mortgage fire into a conflagration .
- 5. It is akin to allowing occasional small forest fires to clear the brushwood , rather than extinguishing them and risking a huge conflagration .