ichidan verb, intransitive verb
burn; be on fire; get fired up
Intransitive verb for something catching fire and burning, or metaphorically for strong emotion, passion, or enthusiasm.
家が燃えている。
The house is burning.
彼は仕事に燃えている。
He is passionate about his work.
Standard kanji spelling for both literal burning and figurative passion.
Kana spelling is common in casual writing and when the figurative sense is emphasized.
Transitive counterpart: 燃やす means 'to burn something' (deliberately or accidentally), while 燃える is intransitive 'to burn' or 'to be on fire'.
Also intransitive 'to burn' or 'to be cooked/grilled', but 焼ける often implies heat applied from outside (e.g., food, skin), while 燃える focuses on the thing itself being consumed by fire.
Derived from classical verb 燃ゆ (moyu), which became 燃える in modern Japanese. The root is native Japanese, related to fire and burning.