inflammation

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act of inflaming or the state of being inflamed.
• noun A localized protective reaction of tissue to irritation, injury, or infection, characterized by pain, redness, swelling, and sometimes loss of function.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of inflaming; the act of setting on fire or of taking fire, actually or figuratively.
• noun A fiery, heated, or inflamed condition, especially as resulting from passion, excessive stimulation, as by intoxicating liquors, etc.
• noun In pathology, a morbid condition usually characterized by swelling, pain, heat, and redness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of inflaming, kindling, or setting on fire; also, the state of being inflamed.
• noun (Med.) A morbid condition of any part of the body, consisting in congestion of the blood vessels, with obstruction of the blood current, and growth of morbid tissue. It is manifested outwardly by redness and swelling, attended with tenderness, heat and pain. It may be caused by exposure to any number of injurious agents.
• noun Violent excitement; heat; passion; animosity; turbulence.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act of inflaming, kindling, or setting on fire; also, the state of being inflamed.
• noun medicine A condition of any part of the body, consisting in congestion of the blood vessels, with obstruction of the blood current, and growth of morbid tissue. It is manifested outwardly by redness and swelling, attended with heat and pain.
• noun Violent excitement; heat; passion; animosity; turbulence; as, an inflammation of the mind, of the body politic, or of parties.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the act of setting something on fire
• noun arousal to violent emotion
• noun a response of body tissues to injury or irritation; characterized by pain and swelling and redness and heat
• noun the state of being emotionally aroused and worked up