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backfire has 4 distinct synonyms spread across 3 of its 7 senses. Each sense below keeps its own list, because a synonym belongs to a meaning and not to a word: swapping one sense's substitute into another sense's sentence is how a thesaurus makes writing worse. WordNet records no antonym for it — antonymy is a relation between word forms rather than concepts, so it is deliberately sparse.
Counts are distinct word forms across every sense. A synonym that appears under three senses is counted once here and shown three times below, under each sense it belongs to.
a loud noise made by the explosion of fuel in the manifold or exhaust of an internal combustion engine
Synonyms, antonyms and the broader and narrower relations for backfire come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Full sources and licences.
a fire that is set intentionally in order to slow an approaching forest fire or grassfire by clearing a burned area in its path
emit a loud noise as a result of undergoing a backfire
“My old car backfires all the time”
set a controlled fire to halt an advancing forest to prairie fire