Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Billowing / swirling thickly: Describes smoke, steam, or vapor rising in dense, voluminous, and continuous clouds or plumes. It emphasizes a strong, visible, and often dramatic upward motion.
   • Rising profusely: Can extend to describe any similar visual effect where something appears to rise abundantly and with great intensity, such as dust or heat haze.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Khói từ đám cháy bốc lên nghi ngút. (Smoke from the fire rose billowing thickly.)
  • Hương trầm nghi ngút trong không gian đền thờ. (Incense smoke swirled profusely in the temple space.)
  • Hơi nước nghi ngút từ nồi nước sôi. (Steam billowed from the boiling pot.)

Advanced Usage

• The word is almost exclusively used in descriptive, often literary, contexts to create a vivid image. It is rarely used in casual, everyday speech.
• It can be used metaphorically to describe something that is intense and visibly manifest, though this is less common.
  • Lòng căm thù nghi ngút. (Hatred burned intensely [like billowing smoke].)

Variants and Related Words

• Ngùn ngụt (adj): A near-synonym also meaning billowing, blazing, or rising fiercely (often for flames or smoke). It can imply a more aggressive or fiery intensity than .
  • Ngọn lửa cháy ngùn ngụt. (The flames blazed fiercely.)

Synonyms

• Billowing: (of smoke, cloud, or steam) moving or rolling in a large mass.
• Swirling: moving in a twisting or spiraling pattern.
• Rolling: moving in a continuous, undulating flow.
• Profusely: in large amounts; abundantly.

Related Idioms

• Khói nghi ngút: A common collocation meaning "billowing smoke."
  • Căn bếp cũ với khói nghi ngút. (The old kitchen with its billowing smoke.)