What does incinerate mean?
Word: Incinerate
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Incinerate means to destroy something completely by burning it.
How do you spell incinerate?
Syllables: in - cin - er - ate
Tricky part: The second syllable begins with a soft c, not an s, which is why insinerate is such a common slip.
Watch out for: insinerate, insinnerate, incinnerate
Memory tip: Cinders are what fire leaves behind, and that word starts with the same soft c.
Incinerate in a sentence
Example 1: Some towns in Sweden incinerate household waste to heat homes in winter.
Example 2: The factory uses a special furnace to incinerate old paper records.
Example 3: The Sun would incinerate any spacecraft that flew too close to it.
Fun Fact
The word comes from Latin cinis, meaning ash, so to incinerate something is, word for word, to turn it into ash.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
incinerrate
a) r
b) n
c) t
d) e
Show answer
a) r. One r is enough before the ending.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Engineers at the new waste plant say they can incinarate most of the town's rubbish and use the heat to warm a swimming pool.
a) rubbish
b) swimming
c) incinarate
d) plant
Show answer
c) incinarate. The vowel after the second n is an e, never an a.
Mingle-Mangle
Rearrange the jumbled letters in the sentence to form the right word:
A very hot furnace can tcnaierein a sack of dry leaves in a few seconds.
a) inaugurate
b) incinerate
c) insinuate
d) invigorate
Show answer
b) incinerate. One c, two n's and no g or u give one choice.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is misspelt. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. conscience 2. incinerate 3. archipeligo 4. reservoir
a) a large lake used for storing water
b) to reduce something to nothing with fire
c) your inner sense of right and wrong
d) a large group of islands
Show answer
d) a large group of islands. This group of islands has an a in the middle, not an i.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which job would most likely need a person to incinerate things?
a) repairing bicycles at a stall by the station
b) teaching painting at a small village school
c) running a plant that handles town rubbish
d) driving a delivery van around the old city
Show answer
c) running a plant that handles town rubbish
2. Why do some towns choose to incinerate rubbish rather than bury it?
a) It makes the rubbish a great deal heavier
b) It keeps the rubbish safe for future use
c) It helps the rubbish grow into rich soil
d) It takes up far less space afterwards
Show answer
d) It takes up far less space afterwards
