What does "bonfire" mean?
A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
Bonfire
/ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
- Grammar: bonfire is listed as noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: backfire, balefire, beacon, blaze.
- Useful contrasts: douse, extinguish, extinguished fire.
- Usage evidence: Halloween was brought to North America by immigrants from Europe who would celebrate the harvest around a bonfire, share ghost stories, sing, and tell fortunes.
How to use "bonfire"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "bonfire" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "bonfire" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "bonfire" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "bonfire" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "bonfire" is acting as noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "backfire" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "bonfire", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A large, controlled outdoor fire lit to celebrate something or as a signal.
"O thou art a perpetuall triumph, an euerlaſting bonefire light, […]"
- 2 a large outdoor fire that is lighted as a signal or in celebration wordnet
- 3 A fire lit outdoors to burn unwanted items; originally (historical), heretics or other offenders, or banned books; now, generally agricultural or garden waste, or rubbish.
"[A]ll the inhabitauntes confortynge and exhortynge eche other to die, rather than to violate the leage and amitie that they of longe tyme had contynued with the Romaynes, by one hole assent, after that they hadde made sondry great pyles of wode and of other mater to brenne, they layde in it all their goodes and substaunce, and laste of all, conuayenge them selfes in to the saide pyles or bonefires with their wyfes and children, sette all on fire, and there were brenned or Annyballe coulde entree the citie."
- 4 Something like a bonfire (sense 1 or 2) in heat, destructiveness, ferocity, etc. figuratively
"And one thing I like in you, novv that you ſee / The bonefire of your Ladies ſtate burnt out, / You give it over, doe you not?"
- 5 A fire lit to cremate a dead body; a funeral pyre. obsolete
"The bodies which the plague had ſlaine were (O moſt wretched caſe) / Not caried forth to buriall now. For why ſuch ſtore there was / That ſcarce the gates were wyde inough for Coffins forth to paſſe. / So eyther lothly on the ground vnburied did they lie, / Or elſe without ſolemnitie were burnt in bonfires hie / No reuerence nor regard was had."
Verb
- 1 To destroy (something) by, or as if by, burning on a bonfire; (more generally) to burn or set alight. transitive
"[L]ike the Christmas joke of snapdragons for children, the very liquor was to be bonfired also, and drank burning."
- 2 To fire (pottery) using a bonfire. transitive
"The pots are formed by the coiling method and bonfired using palm fronds, grass and sometimes dung."
- 3 To start a bonfire in (a place); to light up (a place) with a bonfire. obsolete, transitive
"They almost carried him [the king] into the palace on their shoulders; and at night the whole town was illuminated and bonfired."
- 4 To make, or celebrate around, a bonfire. intransitive, rare
"[W]hen the news of the battle of Lissa came even to our remote quarter of Ireland, we considered it as a triumph for the cause of Protestantism, and illuminated, and bonfired, and had a sermon at church, and kept the Prussian king's birthday, on which my uncle would get drunk, as indeed on any other occasion."
Antonyms
Example
"Halloween was brought to North America by immigrants from Europe who would celebrate the harvest around a bonfire, share ghost stories, sing, and tell fortunes."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "bonfire"?
Common synonyms include: backfire, balefire, beacon, blaze, burn, campfire.
How do you use "bonfire" in a sentence?
Halloween was brought to North America by immigrants from Europe who would celebrate the harvest around a bonfire, share ghost stories, sing, and tell fortunes.
How do you pronounce "bonfire"?
Pronounced /ˈbɒnfaɪəɹ/.
Etymology
PIE word *péh₂wr̥ From Middle English bonnefyre (“a fire in which bones are burnt, bonfire”) [and other forms], by surface analysis, bone + fire. Replaced earlier Middle English bale-fyre, from Old English bǣlfȳr (see balefire). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that bonfires, originally lit as part of midsummer celebrations, were not generally associated with the burning of bones. However, the first edition of the OED (under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1887) stated that “for the annual midsummer ‘banefire’ or ‘bonfire’ in the burgh of Hawick [in Roxburghshire, Scotland], old bones were regularly collected and stored up, down to c. 1800”. The verb is derived from the noun. Cognate with Scots banefire (“bonfire”).