incendio

fire, blaze

noun een-CHEN-dyoh Less Common

Origin: Latin incendium, from incendere, 'to set fire to'

Usage Note

Incendio refers to a destructive fire (un incendio boschivo = 'a forest fire', un incendio doloso = 'arson'). For the controlled fire in a fireplace, Italians use fuoco or fuocherello. The adjective incendiario means both 'incendiary' (literal) and 'inflammatory' (figurative speech). The plural is incendi (regular -io → -i).

Examples

"I vigili del fuoco hanno spento l'incendio."

Natural Translation

The firefighters put out the fire.

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