What does “flamazo” mean in Spanish?
Flamazo en refinería de Dos Bocas preocupa a Tabasco
B2 Spanish listening practice · Mexican Spanish · Picked for people who know more
A flamazo is a sudden flare-up: gas or vapor ignites all at once into a bright, momentary sheet of flame, then drops back. The word is built from flama (flame) and the productive suffix -azo, which adds the sense of a sudden blow or burst — the same machinery behind codazo (elbow jab), frenazo (slamming the brakes), and golazo (a stunner of a goal). Crucially, a flamazo is not an explosión: it flashes, it does not detonate.
The report carefully separates a flamazo from an explosion or fuga (leak), describing controlled venting of gases during tank maintenance at the Dos Bocas refinery. Learning -azo unlocks a whole family of vivid Spanish nouns for sudden hits and bursts — a high-leverage pattern for intermediate learners.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-ESP 2011 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.