Flammability

flam·ma·ble  (flm-bl)

adj.

Easily ignited and capable of burning rapidly; inflammable.

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[From Latin flammre, to set fire to, from flamma, flame; see bhel-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

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flamma·bili·ty n.

flamma·ble n.

Usage Note: Historically, flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. However, the presence of the prefix in- has misled many people into assuming that inflammable means "not flammable" or "noncombustible." The prefix -in in inflammable is not, however, the Latin negative prefix -in, which is related to the English -un and appears in such words as indecent and inglorious. Rather, this -in is an intensive prefix derived from the Latin preposition in. This prefix also appears in the word enflame. But many people are not aware of this derivation, and for clarity's sake it is advisable to use only flammable to give warnings.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

flammability - the quality of being easily ignited and burning rapidly inflammability burnability, combustibility, combustibleness - the quality of being capable of igniting and burning