conflagration

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a large, destructive, and uncontrolled fire

   The warehouse conflagration took more than a hundred firefighters to contain.

2. 2
   noun

   a large and violent conflict or disaster that spreads rapidly

   Leaders feared that the border dispute could ignite a regional conflagration.

From Middle French conflagration, from Latin conflagratio ("a burning"), from conflagrare ("to burn up"). The Latin verb combines con- as an intensive prefix with flagrare ("to blaze"). Its figurative use transfers the rapid spread and destruction of fire to wars and other crises.

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