phlogiston
/flə(ʊ)ˈd͡ʒɪstɒn/noun
phlogiston is a noun meaning “The hypothetical fiery principle formerly assumed to be a necessary constituent of combustible bodies and to be given up by them in burning” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-H-L-O-G-I-S-T-O-N, and it appears about once in every 19 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of phlogiston is phlogistons.
What does phlogiston mean?
noun
- 1
The hypothetical fiery principle formerly assumed to be a necessary constituent of combustible bodies and to be given up by them in burning.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce phlogiston?
- /flə(ʊ)ˈd͡ʒɪstɒn/
- /flə(ʊ)ˈd͡ʒɪstən/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-phlogiston.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of phlogiston
- phlogistons plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is phlogiston?
Phlogiston appears about once in every 19 million words in written English, the 133,440th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Phlogiston in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense hypothetical fiery principle:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | phlogistique |
| German | Phlogiston, Caloricum |
| Portuguese | flogisto, flogístico |
| Spanish | flogisto |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does phlogiston come from?
From New Latin phlogiston, coined by Georg Ernst Stahl in 1702, from Ancient Greek φλογιστόν (phlogistón), neuter of φλογιστός (phlogistós, “burnt up, inflammable”), from φλογίζω (phlogízō, “to set fire to”), from φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).