Dictionaries › English

ash

Pronunciation: /ˈæʃ/

The English word “ash” has 16 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The solid remains of a fire.
  2. The nonaqueous remains of a material subjected to any complete oxidation process.
  3. Fine particles from a volcano, volcanic ash.
  4. Human (or animal) remains after cremation.
  5. Mortal remains in general.
  6. The aftermath or remains of a catastrophe.
  7. A gray color, similar to that of the remains of a fire.
  8. The resultant remaining more stable patterns that emerge from the evolution of a soup or a similarly random pattern.
  9. A shade tree of the genus Fraxinus.
  10. Any tree of certain species of other genera.
  11. The wood of this tree.
  12. The traditional name for the ae ligature (æ), as used in Old English.

verb

  1. To reduce to a residue of ash. See ashing.
  2. To hit the end off (a burning cigar or cigarette).
  3. To mark (someone) with an ashen cross on the forehead to observe Ash Wednesday.
  4. To cover newly-sown fields of crops with ashes.

Etymology

From Middle English aisshe, asche, ash, asshe, axe, eshe, esk, from Old English acse, asċe, axe, axse, æsċe, from Proto-West Germanic *askā, from Proto-Germanic *askǭ (“ash”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs- (“to be dry; to burn; hearth; ashes”). Cognates Cognate with Yola ashen, oaskean (“ashes”), Saterland Frisian Ääske (“ash”), West Frisian jiske (“ash”), Alemannic German Äsche (“ash”),…

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “ash” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.