arson

noun

ar·​son ˈär-sᵊn 

: the willful or malicious burning of property (such as a building) especially with criminal or fraudulent intent

Arson was determined to be the cause of the fire.

arsonist

ˈär-sᵊn-ist 

noun

arsonous

ˈär-sᵊn-əs 

adjective

Examples of arson in a Sentence

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but investigators suspect arson.

The town has suffered a rash of arson attacks.

The town has suffered a rash of arsons.

Recent Examples on the Web

Anyone with information about this case or other suspicious fires is asked to call the arson hotline at 800-468-4408. —Ishani Desai, Sacramento Bee, 5 Apr. 2024

Firefighters brought the fire under control at 2 a.m. Because of the fatality, members of the Kansas City Police Department’s bomb and arson unit responded to the home to help investigate, Hopkins said. —Robert A. Cronkleton, Kansas City Star, 3 Apr. 2024

Miranda Tutor, 32, of 4064 N. Cadillac Drive in Fayetteville, was arrested in connection with arson and terroristic threatening. —Ron Wood, arkansasonline.com, 2 Apr. 2024

Attacks and arson have also displaced thousands of people who have cowded into dozens of displacement camps across the city. —CNN, 24 Mar. 2024

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced within Haiti and thousands killed amid widespread reports of rape, arson and ransom kidnappings, while food prices soar and hospitals run short of key supplies such as blood and oxygen. —Fredlyn Pierre Louis, NBC News, 21 Mar. 2024

By the end of the third day of voting, the number of Russians detained for arson at polling stations and spoiling ballots with paint had reached at least 35 people. —Tanya Stukalova, ABC News, 17 Mar. 2024

In 2021, the same Volcano Group was suspected of carrying out an arson attack on the power supply at the Tesla construction site. —Kate Brady, Washington Post, 5 Mar. 2024

Seymour is one of three suspects, who were all teenagers at the time of the fire, in an arson attack that killed Djibril Diol, his wife Adja, their 2-year-old daughter, Diol’s sister Hassan and her infant daughter in their Denver home, the outlets reported, citing police. —Liam Quinn, Peoplemag, 18 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Anglo-French arsun, arson, arsoun "fire, willful setting of a destructive fire, burn on the skin, branding," going back to Gallo-Romance *ārsiōn-, ārsiō, from Latin ārdēre (perfect and supine stem ārs-) "to catch fire, burn, blaze" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of verbal action — more at ardent

Note: Outside of Anglo-French, arsun, arson (with a by-form arsion) is sparsely attested in Old and Middle French. Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch notes that medieval attestations and later survivals are markedly regional (west and southwest France, including Normandy and Francophone Brittany). — The normal suffix of verbal action in later classical Latin and Late Latin was -tiōn-, -tiō, added to the verbal base (competing with the u-stem suffix -tus more common in earlier Latin), with the exception of a small number of formations with -iōn-, -iō (see condition entry 1, legion entry 1, region). Because the phonetic stem changes conditioned by the verbal adjective/past participle suffix -tus (Indo-European *-tos) are identical to those conditioned by -tiōn-, -tiō, new formations with this suffix in post-classical Latin and proto-Romance copy the morphophonemic alterations of the verbal adjective. This is evident in *ārsiō, formed from ārdēre. Note that the perfect ārsī and presumed (?) supine ārsum are most likely themselves analogical forms based on second-conjugation verbs such as mansī, mansum (from manēre "to wait, remain"), given that ārdēre (from āridus, ārdus "dry") cannot be of great antiquity in Latin.

First Known Use

circa 1680, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

arson

noun

ar·​son ˈär-sᵊn 

: the illegal burning of a building or other property

arsonist

-əst 

noun

Legal Definition

arson

noun

ar·​son ˈärs-ᵊn 

: the act or crime of willfully, wrongfully, and unjustifiably setting property on fire often for the purpose of committing fraud (as on an insurance company)

arsonist

-ist 

noun

Etymology

Anglo-French arsoun, alteration of Old French arsin, literally, conflagration, from ars, past participle of ardre to burn