These words refer to relatively high temperatures. Hot is the most general and the most relative, depending on context for preciseness: weather hot enough to begin melting off the snowdrifts; hot water; even the coolest star is unimaginably hot by human standards. Burning , scorching , searing and sizzling are more specific in referring to temperatures that resemble or are the result of fire. Of these, burning is the most general; it is often used hyperbolically for anything hot or metaphorically or anything high-key: a burning sirocco; burning issues. Scorching is particularly relevant to a hot , dry atmosphere, although the implication of dryness is not always present: the scorching heat of a sauna as compared to the mugginess of a steam bath; scorching weather. Metaphorically, it suggests anger: scorching disdain. Searing always has the sense of severe, dry heat: the searing burn from the red-hot iron; a searing wind dehydrating the skin. Sizzling suggests, often hyperbolically, a burning that give off sparks bathers lying on the sizzling sand; sizzling weather. Metaphorically, it suggests luridness or arousal: sizzling pictures of half-clothed women.

Sultry , sweltering and torrid concentrate more exclusively on one implication of the previous group, the one pertaining to weather. Sultry specifically suggests humid heat: in for another sultry summer. Sweltering is an intensification of sultry, suggesting an oppressive heat associated with heavy sweating or fainting: the customary siesta, made necessary by the sweltering noonday heat. Torrid is more matter-of-fact than the preceding pair, referring more to climate than to weather: the torrid zone; Darwin’s torrid season. Of this group, both sultry and torrid have metaphorical uses referring to emotional excitement. Sultry suggests passionate moodiness or intensity, torrid a more specifically sexual context: the sultry beauties in his harem; a torrid affair.

Feverish, most literally, refers to a high body temperature: He felt faint and feverish. Metaphorically, it can refer to haste and confusion: feverish attempts to meet the deadline.