entzündlich

Entzündlich is a German adjective with two primary meanings. In safety and industry, it denotes substances that can catch fire easily; in medicine, it describes inflammation or inflammatory processes. The context usually makes the sense clear.

In hazard labeling, der ausdrückliche Begriff “entzündlich” marks flammable materials, with qualifiers such as “leicht entzündlich” (easily flammable) and “hochentzündlich” (highly flammable). It can apply to liquids, gases, and some solids, and is commonly found on safety data sheets and warning labels. The term is the standard German equivalent for flammable in regulatory contexts, though it is sometimes paired with phrases indicating degree of flammability.

In medical and biological usage, “entzündlich” describes inflammation. Phrases such as “entzündliche Prozesse” (inflammatory processes) and “entzündliche Erkrankung” (inflammatory disease) are common, referring to responses of tissue to injury or infection.

Etymologically, the adjective derives from the verb entzünden (to ignite) and the related noun Entzündung (inflammation) with the suffix -lich. The two senses—flammability and inflammation—share a common root but are distinct in contemporary usage, depending on whether the context concerns combustion hazards or physiological reactions.

See also: Entzündung, entzünden. In English, “flammable” is the typical translation for the hazard sense, while “inflammatory” corresponds to the medical sense; the German term entzündlich therefore covers both concepts in different contexts.