incinerate

From Latin incinerātus, perfect participle of incinerō (“to burn into ashes”), from cinis (“ashes”).

• (verb, UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɪnəɹeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (adjective, UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɪnəɹət/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɪnɚeɪt/, /ɪnˈsɪnjɚeɪt/

incinerate (third-person singular simple present incinerates, present participle incinerating, simple past and past participle incinerated)

1. (transitive) To destroy by burning.

   Synonyms: burn, forsweal; see also Thesaurus:incinerate

   • 1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., chapter 1, in Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 1:

     His mother was incinerated in the Dresden fire-storm. So it goes.

   • 2025 September 12, “Meth burn by FBI smokes out Montana animal shelter”, in CNN‎^[1], sourced from Associated Press, archived from the original on 10 October 2025:

     A cloud of smoke from two pounds of methamphetamine seized by the FBI and incinerated inside a Montana animal shelter sent its workers to the hospital, city officials in Billings said.

2. (informal) To annihilate (not necessarily by burning).

incinerate (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Reduced to ashes by burning; thoroughly consumed.
   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     FIRE burneth wood, making it first luminous; then black and brittle; and lastly , broken and incinerate

• cantinière, creatinine, itinerance

incinerāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of incinerō

incinerate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of incinerar combined with te