WILDFIRE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wildfire mean? 

• WILDFIRE (noun)
  The noun WILDFIRE has 1 sense:

1. a raging and rapidly spreading conflagration

  Familiarity information: WILDFIRE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WILDFIRE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A raging and rapidly spreading conflagration

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("wildfire" is a kind of...):

conflagration; inferno (a very intense and uncontrolled fire)

 Context examples 

These studies gave the researchers information on how wildfires create their own weather systems.

(Researchers discover how wildfires create their own weather, National Science Foundation)

Both wildfires and droughts have become more frequent in the years since the program began.

(Researchers find preserving spotted owl habitat may not require a tradeoff with wildfire risk after all, Wikinews)

The research also indicates DBC levels from fossil fuel traces have increased in the past 25 years, but these concentrations are small in comparison to those associated with wildfires from more than 1,000 years ago.

(Antarctic lakes are a repository for ancient soot, NSF)

Scientists have developed a new explanation: rapid vegetation changes related to climate fluctuations between arid and moist climates and the resulting extensive wildfires of the time.

(Big dinosaurs steered clear of the tropics, NSF)

The team of scientists looked at the most harmful weather-related disasters — heat waves, cold snaps, wildfires, droughts, floods and windstorms — across the European Union, plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.

(Study: Climate Change Will Bring 50-Fold Rise in Europe Weather-related Deaths, VOA News)

It was brought out forward in a wide-margined, beautifully decorated volume that struck the holiday trade and sold like wildfire.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Tragically, the disasters claimed a total of 138 lives: • 1 drought (affected multiple areas);
• 1 wildfire (affected multiple areas); • 4 inland floods;
• 8 severe storms; and
• 1 hurricane (Matthew).

(2016 was 2nd warmest year on record for U.S., NOAA)

Airborne soot produced by wildfires and fossil-fuel combustion and transported to the remote McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica contains levels of black carbon too low to contribute significantly to the melting of local glaciers.

(Soot transported from elsewhere in world contributes little to melting of some Antarctic glaciers, National Science Foundation)

When the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs slammed into the planet, the impact set wildfires, triggered tsunamis and blasted so much sulfur into the atmosphere that it blocked the sun, which caused the global cooling that ultimately doomed the dinos.

(Rocks at asteroid impact site record first day of dinosaur extinction, National Science Foundation)

Australian authorities urged people to remain alert on Monday as wildfires that have destroyed dozens of homes, killed cattle and forced hundreds of residents to flee continued to burn out of control in the southeast of the country.

(Australian Wildfires Destroy Homes, Kill Cattle as Hundreds of People Flee, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)