incendiarism

[ in-sen-dee-uh-riz-uhm ]

noun

1. the act or practice of an arsonist; malicious burning.
2. inflammatory behavior; agitation.

Word History and Origins

Origin of incendiarism¹

First recorded in 1665–75; incendiar(y) + -ism

Example Sentences

But foregrounding the intense new waves of brutality that would greet the nascent civil rights movement, Tuskegee continued in its final lynching report that the terror was switching modes by “the development of other extra-legal means of control, such as bombings, incendiarism, threats and intimidation”.

From The Guardian

There were about twenty so punished at Canton in 1843, for incendiarism.

From Project Gutenberg

To bring the day's work to a fitting close, Cockburn, while the heavens and surrounding country were still ruddy with the flames, entered a brothel and spent in lust and riot a night begun in incendiarism and pillage.

From Project Gutenberg

American soldiers were constantly driving innocent persons out of their homes by an alarm of fire, or by actual incendiarism, in order more easily to plunder the contents, and all attempts to check this atrocious practice had proved abortive.

From Project Gutenberg

Continental Army, Desertions, mutiny in, 73; complaints against officers, violations of parole, rascally surgeons, 73; Adams on quarrels of officers, 74; stealing of stores, 74; Washington on the character and inefficiency of officers, 74; plundering and incendiarism, 74.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• torching