on fire

1. 1.

   lighted up by or as by fire or flame

   “forests set ablaze (or afire) by lightning”

   “even the car's tires were aflame”

   “a night aflare with fireworks”

   “candles alight on the tables”

   “houses on fire”

   Synonymsablazeafireaflameaflarealight

   Similarlighted

Questions about on fire

What does on fire mean?

on fire means "lighted up by or as by fire or flame".

What is another word for on fire?

Close synonyms include ablaze, afire, aflame, aflare, alight. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is on fire a common word?

on fire is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.