Deflagratory

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to or causing a rapid combustion or burning process
2. describing a type of chemical reaction that releases energy through combustion
3. characterized by flames and heat generation from a reacting substance

Etymology: Deflagratory comes from the Latin verb "deflagrare," built from "de-," which adds a sense of thoroughness, and "flagrare," meaning "to burn" or "to blaze." The same root gives English "flagrant," which originally described something glaring or blazing before it came to mean an obvious, shameless offence. The adjective is formed from "deflagrate," to burn rapidly and flare up, plus the suffix "-ory," meaning relating to or producing. Chemists and engineers use the related noun "deflagration" for combustion that spreads through a substance at subsonic speed, slower than the shockwave of an explosion. The adjective is the rarer, more technical sibling, describing whatever causes such fast burning.