Ignites

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Causes something to begin burning or sets it on fire
2. Initiates combustion or causes flames to appear
3. Triggers the start of a burning process by supplying heat or flame

Etymology: "Ignites" is the third-person singular present form of "ignite," so it describes something that starts to burn, or the act of setting it alight, with the subject doing the action. The verb goes back to Latin "igniare," meaning "to set on fire," which was built from "ignis," the Latin word for fire. Its ancestry reaches back to a reconstructed Indo-European root that also gave Sanskrit "agní" and Lithuanian "ugnis," all meaning fire, so the word connects to a family of ancient names for the same element. The Latin root reached English through a more specialised channel than everyday fire words. Its relatives include "igneous," used of rocks formed from cooled molten material, which shows the same fire root working in technical vocabulary. Within the verb itself, the sense of kindling or starting something has stayed close to the literal one: heat or flame is supplied, and combustion begins.

Synonyms: kindles, lights, starts, fires, initiates

Antonyms: extinguishes, quells, puts out, snuffs, douses