fuel
pronunciation
How to pronounce fuel in British English:
UK [ˈfjuːəl]
How to pronounce fuel in American English:
US [ˈfjuːəl]
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- Noun:
- a substance that can be consumed to produce energy
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- Verb:
- provide with a combustible substance that provides emergy
- provide with fuel
- take in fuel, as of a ship
- stimulate
Word Origin
- fuel
- fuel: [14] The notions of ‘fuel’ and ‘fire’ are closely connected etymologically. Fuel comes via Anglo-Norman fuaille from medieval Latin focālia, which was used in legal documents as a term for the ‘right to demand material for making a fire’. It was a derivative of Latin focus ‘fireplace, fire’, which also gave English focus, foyer, and fusillade.=> focus, foyer, fusillade
- fuel (n.)
- c. 1200, feuel, feul "fuel, material for burning," also figurative, from Old French foaille "fuel for heating," from Medieval Latin legal term focalia "right to demand material for making fire, right of cutting fuel," from classical Latin focalia "brushwood for fuel," from neuter plural of Latin focalis "pertaining to a hearth," from focus "hearth, fireplace" (see focus (n.)). Figurative use from 1570s. Of food, as fuel for the body, 1876. As "combustible liquid for an internal combustion engine" from 1886. A French derivative is fouailler "woodyard." Fuel-oil is from 1882.
- fuel (v.)
- 1590s, "feed or furnish with fuel," literal and figurative, from fuel (n.). Intransitive sense "to get fuel" (originally firewood) is from 1880. Related: Fueled; fueling.
Synonym
Example
- 1. But the essential fuel is innovation .
- 2. India and indonesia are considering scaling back fuel subsidies .
- 3. Aid and remittances fuel consumption and a building boom .
- 4. This poisonous combination could fuel instability rather than assuage it .
- 5. All made it to athens , the destination , without buying fuel .