What does fume mean?
A fume is a vapour, smoke, or gas — typically one that is unpleasant, irritating, or hazardous, such as the exhaust fumes of vehicles or the toxic fumes released by burning chemicals. In safety and environmental contexts the word usually appears in the plural, signalling airborne pollutants that people are warned to avoid inhaling. But fume also lives a second life as a verb meaning to seethe with anger: to fume is to simmer with irritation, often visibly but silently, as when a traveller fumes over a delayed flight. This double identity — a physical emission on one hand and an emotional state on the other — makes the word unusually versatile. Its figurative use carries a vivid connotation: anger imagined as heat or vapour rising from a person, which is exactly how English speakers have pictured bad temper for centuries.
A smoke, vapour, or gas, especially one that is harmful, irritating, or offensive to breathe.
"Workers were told to wear masks to avoid inhaling chemical fumes."
Usually used in the plural in technical and health-and-safety contexts.
To feel and display anger or irritation, typically by brooding silently or venting in an irritated way.
"He sat in the kitchen fuming about the parking ticket."
In technical, medical, and safety writing the plural 'fumes' is the norm, referring collectively to airborne vapours or gases; the singular is less common outside chemistry.
"The factory was fined for releasing toxic fumes into the neighbourhood."
The same Latin word that gives us 'perfume' — literally 'through smoke' — also powers 'fumigate', so every fragrant spray owes its name to smoke.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fume
Fume comes from the Latin 'fumus', meaning smoke, which passed into Old French as 'fume' before entering Middle English around the fourteenth century. The same Latin root underlies a whole family of words: 'fumigate' (to purify with smoke), 'perfume' (literally 'through smoke'), 'fumarole' (a volcanic vent emitting gas), and the plant name 'fumitory'. The verb sense of showing anger developed from the notion of a person giving off vapour like something smouldering, a metaphor that became fully established in English by the sixteenth century.
Related word forms
How fume is actually used
The verb sense often implies suppressed rather than explosive anger — someone who 'is fuming' may be visibly seething without shouting. The noun sense is frequently plural ('fumes') in technical and safety contexts. Both senses are standard in British and American English.
Easily confused with fume
A flume is a narrow gorge or an artificial channel carrying water, whereas a fume is a vapour or gas; the two share only visual similarity in spelling.