American way of saying 'scorching heat'

To describe the scorching heat, Americans have many different ways such as "sweltering hot", "burning hot" or "blistering hot".

Mr. Quang Nguyen, an English pronunciation training expert, introduces some common ways of saying hot weather in English:

In August 2017, while I was still in the US, I invited my best friend's family over to play. The kids were running around outside for a while before being pulled inside because there was a "heatwave". At that time, the radio also warned, "There's a heatwave, you should keep the children indoors to avoid sunstroke." The word "sunstroke" means "heatstroke".

I also see Americans often use a word instead of "very hot" which is "sweltering hot". The verb "swelter" expresses the feeling of discomfort, suffocation due to heat: "The soldier swelters in their uniform" (the soldier was extremely uncomfortable because of the heat when wearing his uniform). In addition, there is another expression "blistering", for example: She ran a marathon in the blistering weather (she ran a marathon in extremely hot weather).

The term "blistering hot" is a way of thinking about the blistering that occurs when the skin is burned. For example, I think if I walked barefoot on the streets of Hanoi on a day when the temperature reached 45 degrees, my feet would "blister" immediately.

A pedestrian uses an envelope to shade himself from the sun, in London, July 2022. Photo: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg — A pedestrian uses an envelope to shade himself from the sun, in London, July 2022. Photo: *Hollie Adams/Bloomberg*

You may also have heard the phrase "scorching hot", which means hot as if you were on fire all around you. Or "It's sizzling hot" is another way of saying very hot, which is also quite common in the US. When I hear this expression, I remember when I was in Michigan eating Chinese food in the winter of -17 degrees Celsius, I walked into the restaurant and ordered "sizzling rice soup", a hot soup and when I put the scorched rice in it, it boiled and made a "sizzle" sound - like a crackling sound, hot and delicious. The word "sizzle" is the "sizzling" sound when you fry something on a hot pan, so "sizzling hot" means very hot.

Instead of "extremely hot", you can also say "It's burning hot" is a similar expression to "it's scorching". There's also "it's boiling". Another expression is "it's roasting" - which immediately reminds me of a duck roasted on hot coals, which also means extremely hot. The verb "roast" means to turn or grill food.

Finally, the word "hot" must be mentioned. I find the expression "(as) hot as hell" quite popular - hot as hell. The equivalent is "hot as a pistol". The full expression "hot as a $2 pistol" originates from the 19th century, a cheap pistol whose barrel became unusually hot after firing.

Finally, not everyone knows that "summer solstice" is "summer solstice" in English.

Quang Nguyen

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