Burn means to be damaged or destroyed by fire or extreme heat. When wood burns in a fireplace, flames consume it and turn it to ash. You can burn your finger on a hot stove, burn toast in the toaster, or watch a candle burn slowly down to nothing.

The word carries different meanings depending on context. In exercise, your muscles might burn during a hard workout: that's the uncomfortable sensation of pushing them to their limit. A clever insult that really stings is called a burn, like when someone makes a sharp comeback that leaves the other person speechless. When the sun burns your skin, you get a painful sunburn that turns red and hurts to touch.

Burn can also mean using something up: your computer burns through battery power, or you might burn calories by running around at recess. People sometimes talk about burning a CD or DVD, which means copying data onto it (the laser inside literally burns microscopic marks into the disc).

Someone might say they got burned when a deal or friendship goes wrong: they trusted someone and ended up hurt or disappointed. And when you're burning with curiosity or anger, you feel that emotion intensely, like a fire inside you.