1. a very large, dangerous fire that is difficult to control
2. a place or situation of intense heat, flames, or destruction
3. hell, especially as described in Dante’s Divine Comedy
Usage: literary

Examples

• The warehouse became an inferno within minutes of the explosion.
• Firefighters battled the inferno for three days before containing it.
• The desert felt like an inferno during the midday heat.
• The bombing turned the city into a raging inferno.
• Dante’s Inferno describes the poet’s journey through hell.
• The kitchen was an inferno after the grease fire started.