Ember
adj, name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A piece of coal or wood glowing by heat; a hot coal.
- 2 a hot fragment of wood or coal that is left from a fire and is glowing or smoldering wordnet
- 3 Smoldering ash.
- 1 Making a circuit of the year or the seasons; recurring in each quarter of the year, as certain religious days set apart for fasting and prayer. not-comparable
"ember fasts"
- 1 A unisex given name. rare
"This conversation took place at an advertising agency between an American copywriter named Ember (E), and one of his Japanese co-workers named Nakada (N)."
Example
More examples"The last ember of the fire glowed."
Etymology
From Middle English embre, eymbre, aymer, eymere, emeri, from Old English ǣmyrġe, from Proto-West Germanic *aimuʀjā, from Proto-Germanic *aimuzjǭ, a compound of *aimaz + *uzjǭ. The latter is from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ews- (“to burn”). The b is intrusive and was added in English for ease of pronunciation when the vowel of the second syllable (y) disappeared. See also Old High German eimuria (“pyre”), Danish emmer, Swedish mörja (“embers”).
From Middle English embryne (“running around, circuit”), from Old English ymbryne (“course; circuit”). Spelling changed through folk etymology. By surface analysis, umb- + run.
Related phrases
More for "ember"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.