[in-fur-noh; for 3 also It. een-fer-naw] 
| 1. | hell; the infernal regions. |
| 2. | a place or region that resembles hell: The ironworks was an inferno of molten steel and half-naked bodies. |
| 3. | (initial capital letter, italics ) the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy, depicting hell and the suffering of the damned. Compare paradise (def. 7), purgatory (def. 2). |
| in·fer·no (ĭn-fûr'nō) n. pl. in·fer·nos
[Italian, hell, from Late Latin īnfernus; see infernal.] |
The first section of The Divine Comedy, by Dante. Inferno is the Italian word for “hell.”
Note: By extension, an “inferno” is a hot and terrible place or condition.