noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act of igniting. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the act of setting something on fire wordnet
3. 3
   The initiation of combustion. countable, uncountable
4. 4
   the mechanism that ignites the fuel in an internal-combustion engine wordnet
5. 5
   A system for activating combustion in a combustion engine. countable, uncountable

Show 3 more definitions

6. 6
   the process of initiating combustion or catching fire wordnet
7. 7
   Receptacle for a key used to start the engine in a vehicle. countable, uncountable

   "Put the key in the ignition and turn in right."

8. 8
   The phenomenon of a thermonuclear fusion reaction becoming self-sustaining and no longer requiring external heating. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

inflammationacceleratorairburstaltitude peakarc ignitionauto

Example

More examples

"Tom tried to put the key in the ignition."

Etymology

From French ignition.

Related phrases

basic ignition timingdynamic ignition timingentry ignition enginefalse ignitionignition coilignition interlockignition keyignition temperatureignition timingignition tube testcar consolecar starter

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.