combustible

English

Etymology

From Middle French combustible, equivalent to combust +‎ -ible.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəmˈbʌstɪbəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧bust‧i‧ble

Adjective

combustible (comparative more combustible, superlative most combustible)

1. Capable of burning.

   Synonyms: flammable; inflammable (in one of its contranymic senses)

   Antonyms: incombustible, noncombustible; nonflammable, noninflammable, unflammable; inflammable (in one of its contranymic senses), fireproof, refractory

   Hyponym: flammable

   Coordinate terms: fire-resistant, fire-retardant, flame-retardant

   Dumping fertilizer on top of whatever mysterious goop was in the storage tank created a combustible mix which caught fire.

   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     Sin is to the soul like fire to combustible matter.

   • 2023 March 22, “Network News: Class 175s withdrawn for safety checks after fires”, in RAIL, number 979, page 13:

     The rest were undergoing special underbody cleaning safety checks at TfW depots, after speculation that the cause of the incidents may have been a build-up of engine oil and combustible material such as fallen leaves and general detritus.

2. (figurative, dated) Easily kindled or excited; quick; fiery; irascible.

   Antonyms: incombustible, noncombustible

   • 1855–1859, Washington Irving, The Life of George Washington:

     Arnold, however, was a combustible character.

   • 2022 October 26, Cade Metz, Adam Satariano, Chang Che, “How Elon Musk Became a Geopolitical Chaos Agent”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The world’s richest man has inserted himself in some of the world’s most combustible conflicts.

Derived terms

• autocombustible
• combustibleness
• combustibly
• multicombustible
• non-combustible
• noncombustible
• polycombustible
• uncombustible

Related terms

• combust
• combustibility
• combustion

Translations

capable of burning

• Bulgarian: запалим (bg) (zapalim), възпламеним (bg) (vǎzplamenim)
• Catalan: combustible (ca)
• Czech: hořlavý (cs)
• Finnish: syttyvä (fi)
• French: combustible (fr)
• Galician: combustible (gl), combustíbel (gl)
• German: brennbar (de), verbrennbar
• Hungarian: gyúlékony (hu)
• Japanese: 可燃性の (kanensei no)
• Maltese: ħruqi
• Manx: so-ghreesaghey, yn-lostey
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: brennbar

  Nynorsk: brennbar

• Portuguese: combustível (pt)
• Romanian: combustibil (ro)
• Russian: воспламеня́емый (ru) (vosplamenjájemyj), воспламеня́ющийся (ru) (vosplamenjájuščijsja)
• Spanish: combustible (es)
• Swedish: brännbar (sv)
• Tagalog: maliyab
• Turkish: yanıcı (tr)

Noun

combustible (plural combustibles)

1. A material that is capable of burning.
   • 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 248:

     A wheel, wrapt in combustibles, was kindled and rolled down the hill.

Translations

material capable of burning

• Bulgarian: горивен материал (goriven material)
• Catalan: combustible (ca) m
• Finnish: syttyvä aine
• French: combustible (fr) m
• Galician: combustible (gl) m, combustíbel (gl) m
• German: Brennstoff (de) m
• Japanese: 可燃物 (ja) (kanenbutsu)
• Portuguese: combustível (pt) m
• Russian: то́пливо (ru) n (tóplivo)
• Spanish: combustible (es) m
• Tagalog: liyabin
• Turkish: yanıcı (tr)

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kum.busˈtib.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [kom.busˈtib.blə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [kom.busˈti.ble]

Adjective

combustible m or f (masculine and feminine plural combustibles)

1. combustible

Noun

combustible m (plural combustibles)

1. combustible, fuel

Related terms

• combustió

Further reading

• “combustible”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], 2007 April
• “combustible”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “combustible” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “combustible” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

From combustion +‎ -ible.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.bys.tibl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

combustible m (plural combustibles)

1. combustible

Adjective

combustible (plural combustibles)

1. combustible

Further reading

• “combustible”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kombusˈtible/ [kõm.busˈt̪i.β̞le]
• Rhymes: -ible
• Syllabification: com‧bus‧ti‧ble

Adjective

combustible m or f (masculine and feminine plural combustibles)

1. combustible

Noun

combustible m (plural combustibles)

1. fuel

Derived terms

• agrocombustible
• combustible fósil
• pila de combustible

Related terms

• comburente
• combustión

Further reading

• “combustible”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10