Muerte en la hoguera (o simplemente hoguera) es la muerte provocada por la combustión. La hoguera tiene una larga historia como pena de delitos religiosos como la traición, herejía y brujería. Según el Talmud, la «quema» que se menciona en la Biblia se hizo por la fusión de plomo que posteriormente era vertida en la garganta de la persona condenada, causando la muerte inmediata. La forma particular de la ejecución por la quema en la que el condenado está obligado a un gran juego es más comúnmente llamado la quema en la hoguera. La muerte en la hoguera cayó en desgracia entre los gobiernos en el siglo XVIII, y ahora es considerado un castigo cruel e inusual.

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Deliberately causing death through the effects of combustion, or effects of exposure to extreme heat, has a long history as a form of capital punishment. Many societies have employed it as an execution method for activities considered criminal such as treason, rebellious actions by slaves, heresy, witchcraft and sexual transgressions, such as incest or homosexuality. The best known type of executions of death by burning is when the condemned is bound to a large wooden stake (this is usually called burning at the stake, or in some cases, auto-da-fé), but other forms of death resulting from exposure to extreme heat are known. For example, pouring substances such as molten metal onto a person (or down their throat or into their ears) are attested, as well as enclosing persons within, or attaching them to, metal contraptions subsequently heated. Immersion in a heated liquid as a form of execution is considered distinct from death by burning, and classified as death by boiling. For burnings at the stake, if the fire was large (for instance, when a number of prisoners were executed at the same time), death often came from carbon monoxide poisoning before flames actually caused harm to the body. If the fire was small, however, the convict would burn for some time until death from hypovolemia (the loss of blood and/or fluids, since extensive burns often require large amounts of intravenous fluid, because the subsequent inflammatory response causes significant capillary fluid leakage and oedema), heatstroke and/or simply the thermal decomposition of vital body parts.

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