cinder
n.a piece of burnt coal or wood that is still hot and glowing. You usually find these on the ground after a fire has gone out.
n.a glowing fragment of burnt fuel, such as coal or wood, that remains after a fire has died down. Often used in the plural to describe the debris left on the ground.
“The ground was covered in glowing cinders after the campfire.”
“The hikers carefully stamped out the campfire to ensure no cinders would start a forest fire.”
“As the storm passed, the wind scattered embers and cinders across the valley, leaving a trail of scorched grass and ash in its wake.”
“When Palestinians resisted seizure of the sheep by throwing stones and cinder blocks, the troops shot them, the spokesperson said.”
“John’s little motorbike proves no match for the large truck commandeered by the T-1000, which blasts through a cinder block wall at one point.”
From Middle English cyndyr, syndir, synder, sinder, from Old English sinder (“cinder, dross, slag, scoria, dross of iron, impurity of metal”), from Proto-West Germanic sindr, from Proto-Germanic sindrą, sindraz (“dross, cinder, slag”), from Proto-Indo-European sendʰro- (“coagulating fluid, liquid slag, scale, cinder”). Cognate with Scots sinder (“ember, cinder”), West Frisian sindel, sintel (“cinder, slag”), Dutch sintel (“cinder, ember, slag”), Middle Low German sinder, sinter (“cinder, slag”), German Sinter (“dross of iron, scale”), Danish sinder (“spark of ignited iron, cinder”), Swedish sinder (“slag or dross from a forge”), Icelandic sindur (“scoring”), Old Church Slavonic сѧдра (sędra, “lime cinder, gypsum”). Spelling (c- for s-) influenced by unrelated French cendre (“ashes”). Doublet of sinter.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.