catch fire
"catch-fire" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“catch fire” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To become engulfed in flames, to combust.
Corpus desk
Index EN-catch-fire · catch fire · English
catch fire · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | catch fire |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “catch fire” in English
Rare enough to double-check
catch fire is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for catch fire in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is catch fire, spelled C-A-T-C-H- -F-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1To become engulfed in flames, to combust.
- 2To become very popular or widespread; to take off.
- 3To be inspired by passion or zeal.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how catch fire appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ships' logs noted observations of the northern lights as far south as the Caribbean, and telegraph systems across the world were disrupted as electrical currents were induced in the copper lines. Several telegraph operators received electric shocks and some telegraph stations even caught fire.
The news caught fire through the school, and Layla found herself — a mere first-year student at the secondary school — the center of attention and admiration.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.