Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
hissing hot

hissing hot

6.5
Very hot and making a sharp steam sound, like food from the oven or a pan
  • adjective
translation icon : hirviendo
  • The hissing hot pan warned everyone not to touch it right out of the oven.

Examples

  • He took a bite without realizing the pizza was still hissing hot.

  • Steam rose from the hissing hot pot of stew as she carefully stirred it.

  • The soup was hissing hot when it arrived.

  • Be careful with that hissing hot pan!

  • The chef served the pizza straight from the oven, bubbling and hissing hot on the plate.

  • He carefully lifted the skillet from the stove, the oil inside it hissing hot and crackling.

  • As she opened the lid of the pot, a cloud of steam escaped, revealing the hissing hot soup inside.

Synonyms

hot
vshissing hot
∞ 1.0

Having a high temperature and able to burn your skin

denotes extreme temperature that specifically causes a sharp escaping sound
piping hot
vshissing hot
  • Informal
8 3.2

Very hot food or drink that is steaming and just cooked

focuses on extreme heat that produces a sharp escaping sound
sizzling
vshissing hot
3 3.4

Very hot and making a hissing sound

is extreme heat that actually causes a sharp escaping sound
hot as Hades
vshissing hot
  • Informal
8.4

Very hot, with high temperature or strong spice

expresses severe heat that also produces a sharp escaping sound

Antonyms

cool
608 1.0

A fairly low temperature that feels pleasant

cold
131 1.0

The feeling of low temperature on your body

How Hot

boiling
  • Specialized
1.0
scalding
3.7
hissing hot
6.5
hot
∞ 1.0
warm
∞ 1.0
lukewarm
13 2.3

Surface Forms

hissing hot positive

Morphology

hiss + hot

The meaning 'extremely hot' is directly built from the constituents: 'hiss' (a sound produced by steam/heat) + 'hot' (having high temperature), so a learner who knows both words can infer that something is so hot it hisses. This is a compositional, descriptive phrase (often onomatopoeic) and follows transparent cross-linguistic logic, making it predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Hissing hot comes from the real hissing sound food or pans make when they are very hot: steam or water on the hot surface makes a 'hiss', so hissing and hot create the image of something 'extremely hot'.