To burn intensely; to burst into flames or cause a great fire; to ignite.
From Latin 'conflagrare,' combining 'con-' (thoroughly, together) and 'flagrare' (to burn). Used since medieval times to describe catastrophic fires affecting entire areas.
Medieval chroniclers used 'conflagrate' to describe the Great Fire of London (1666)—watching entire neighborhoods conflagrate would have seemed like biblical apocalypse to 17th-century observers.
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