# torch

> English word · Noun · IPA /tɔːtʃ/ · frequency rank #10,624

## Definitions
1. A stick of wood or plant fibres twisted together, with one end soaked in a flammable substance such as resin or tallow and set on fire, which is held in the hand, put into a wall bracket, or stuck into the ground, and used chiefly as a light source.
2. A stick of wood or plant fibres twisted together, with one end soaked in a flammable substance such as resin or tallow and set on fire, which is held in the hand, put into a wall bracket, or stuck into the ground, and used chiefly as a light source.
3. A stick of wood or plant fibres twisted together, with one end soaked in a flammable substance such as resin or tallow and set on fire, which is held in the hand, put into a wall bracket, or stuck into the ground, and used chiefly as a light source.
4. A flower which is red or red-orange in colour like a flame.
5. A spike (“kind of inflorescence”) made up of spikelets.
6. The common mullein, great mullein, or torchwort (Verbascum thapsus).
7. A cactus with a very elongated body; a ceroid cactus; a torch cactus or torch-thistle.
8. A source of enlightenment or guidance.
9. In carry, hand on, pass on, take up the torch: a precious cause, principle, tradition, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others.
10. Ellipsis of torch drive (“a spacecraft engine which produces thrust by nuclear fusion”).
11. Ellipsis of blowtorch (“a tool which projects a controlled stream of a highly flammable gas over a spark in order to produce a controlled flame”).
12. An arsonist.

## Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English torch, torche (“large candle; lighted stick; (figurative) sunbeam”), from Old French torche, torque (“torch; bundle of (twisted) straw”) (modern French torche); further etymology uncertain, probably from Vulgar Latin *torca (“coiled object”) (referring to a torch made from twisted plant fibres dipped in a flammable substance such as pitch), from Latin torqua, a variant of torquis (“collar of twisted metal, torque; wreath”), from torqueō (“to twist, wind”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
Sense 2.3 (Verbascum thapsus) is either due to the plant’s spike of yellow flowers, or because its leaves and stalks were used to make torches (noun sense 1). Sense 3.2 (“precious cause, etc., which needs to be protected and transmitted to others”) is derived from Latin lampada trādere, from Ancient Greek λᾰμπᾰ́δᾰ πᾰρᾰδιδόναι (lămpắdă părădidónai, “to hand over the torch”), a reference to the torch race held at various festivals such as the Panathenaic Games in Ancient Greece, which involved a relay where a torch was passed from one runner to another.
The verb is derived from the noun.

## Easily confused with
- **torn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-torn)
- **Tory** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-tory)
- **tore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-tore)
- **toro** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-toro)
- **tori** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-tori)
- **tort** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-tort)
- **tosh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-tosh)
- **Toth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-toth)
- **touch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-touch)
- **tough** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-tough)
- **torso** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-torso)
- **torts** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-torts)
- **torus** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-torus)
- **touchy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/torch-vs-touchy)
- **tor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tor-vs-torch)
- **ToC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/toc-vs-torch)
- **tch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tch-vs-torch)
- **toh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/toh-vs-torch)
- **tech** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tech-vs-torch)
- **tock** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/tock-vs-torch)

## Common misspellings (8)
`otrch`, `tocrh`, `torcch`, `torchh`, `torhc`, `torrch`, `troch`, `ttorch`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/torch