Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Arousing passion or strong emotion, especially anger, belligerence, or desire.
  • adjective Caused or characterized by inflammation.
  • adjective Relating to or involved in inflammation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Tending to inflame, or to excite or produce inflammation: as, inflammatory medicines.
  • Of the nature of, or accompanied or caused by, the morbid condition called inflammation: as, inflammatory rheumatism.
  • Of, pertaining to, or indicative of inflammation, or an inflamed condition: as, inflammatory symptoms.
  • Tending to excite passion, desire, etc.; of a nature to rouse anger, animosity, tumult, sedition, etc.: as, an inflammatory harangue.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Tending to inflame, kindle, or irritate.
  • adjective Tending to excite anger, animosity, tumult, or sedition; seditious.
  • adjective (Med.) Accompanied with, or tending to cause, preternatural heat and excitement of arterial action.
  • adjective (Med.) Same as Buffy coat, under Buffy.
  • adjective a variety of fever due to inflammation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Tending to inflame or provoke somebody.
  • adjective Causing or caused by inflammation.
  • noun Any material that causes inflammation

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective characterized or caused by inflammation
  • adjective arousing to action or rebellion

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word inflammatory.

Examples

  • It cites a series of what he calls inflammatory statements that show "that judgments have been reached and the tenor of the hearing will be prosecutorial."

    CNN Transcript Feb 3, 2002 2002

  • Scheller also complained in court filings about defense lawyers' "aggressive" tactics, including a 7 1/2-hour deposition of Keith in which she was given few breaks, and subsequent e-mails to her "alluding to possible retaliation ... for what they characterized as inflammatory and/or slanderous statements."

    www.startribune.com 2012

  • She expressed dismay at what she called "inflammatory language" being used by critics of the current policy.

    Kansas City Star: Front Page 2011

  • Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Tuesday what he called the inflammatory rhetoric of

    Thestar.com - Home Page 2011

  • Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Tuesday what he called the inflammatory rhetoric of

    SFGate: Top News Stories 2011

  • She expressed dismay at what she called "inflammatory language" being used by critics of the current policy.

    Kansas City Star: Front Page 2011

  • Blagojevich had argued for the removal because of what he called inflammatory comments made by Fitzgerald and the head of the Chicago FBI office when Blagojevich was arrested in December.

    The Buffalo News: Home 2009

  • Blagojevich had argued for the removal because of what he called inflammatory comments made by Fitzgerald and the head of the Chicago FBI office when Blagojevich was arrested in December.

    Kentucky.com: Homepage 2009

  • Blagojevich had argued for the removal because of what he called inflammatory comments made by Fitzgerald and the head of the Chicago FBI office when Blagojevich was arrested in December.

    Homepage 2009

  • Blagojevich had argued for the removal because of what he called inflammatory comments made by Fitzgerald and the head of the Chicago FBI office when Blagojevich was arrested in December.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.