as in to burn
to be on fire especially brightly
anthracite, which is naturally hard, combusts more cleanly than bituminous coal
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of combust
Western Maryland’s communities should not be left to combust in the footnotes of our state’s history, but should be integral to its future.
—
Daniel A.c. McBride, Baltimore Sun, 1 June 2025
The dog, which Giancarlo said combusted as if something flammable had been applied to it, ran over to the couch, where the tenant tried to grab it, the report said.
—Ethan Baron, Mercury News, 20 May 2025
The removal part is that CO2 absorbed by the trees is never re-emitted at the plant when biomass waste is combusted.
—Ben Geman, Axios, 11 Apr. 2025
Electric ground source heat pumps extracting heat from geothermal wells in winter deliver at least three times as much heat as the equivalent of electric power input, and will be less expensive than combusting natural gas.
—David Englert, Hartford Courant, 3 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for combust
Daniel A.c. McBride, Baltimore Sun, 1 June 2025
The dog, which Giancarlo said combusted as if something flammable had been applied to it, ran over to the couch, where the tenant tried to grab it, the report said.
—Ethan Baron, Mercury News, 20 May 2025
The removal part is that CO2 absorbed by the trees is never re-emitted at the plant when biomass waste is combusted.
—Ben Geman, Axios, 11 Apr. 2025
Electric ground source heat pumps extracting heat from geothermal wells in winter deliver at least three times as much heat as the equivalent of electric power input, and will be less expensive than combusting natural gas.
—David Englert, Hartford Courant, 3 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for combust
Recent Examples of Synonyms for combust
Verb
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The pair, who met as college undergrads, both burned with idealism and recognized their privilege could be leveraged for a game-changing idea.—
Carole Horst,
Variety,
13 Sep. 2023
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The Ellen MacArthur Foundation promotes circular fashion and says that, in the United States, an amount of clothing equal to a garbage truck is ferried to landfills or burned every second.—
Neeti Mehra,
Treehugger,
13 Sep. 2023
Verb
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Flaky croissants warm in glowing bakeries, accordion notes drift through the air, and lovers linger by the Seine.—
Lewis Nunn,
Forbes.com,
14 Aug. 2025
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Photographer Josh Dury captured a breathtaking view of Perseid meteors raining down alongside the glowing band of the Milky Way towards the Durdle Door rock formation on the coast of Dorset in the UK.—
Anthony Wood,
Space.com,
13 Aug. 2025
Verb
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But translated into presidential pictures, the ballroom is actually one and a third football fields, 15 flaming Hindenburgs, or alternatively, three Trump Tower apartments based on their property fraud size.—
Pat Beall,
The Orlando Sentinel,
10 Aug. 2025
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The flaming parachutes burnt up in 2.3 to three seconds each take, so Cruise had to think fast — 16 times in a row.—
Kory Grow,
Rolling Stone,
5 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Combust.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/combust. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.
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