Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) data of Moderate or Intense Low-oxygen Dilution (MILD) combustion are analysed to gather insights on autoignition and flame propagation in MILD combustion. Unlike in conventional combustion, the chemical reactions occur over a large portion of the computational domain. The presence of ignition and flame propagation and their coexistence are studied through spatial and statistical analyses of the convective, diffusive and chemical effects in the species transport equations. Autoignition is observed in regions with lean mixtures because of their low ignition delay times and these events propagate into richer mixtures either as a flame or ignition. This is found to be highly dependent on the mixture fraction length scale, l(z), and autoignition is favoured when l(z) is small. (C) 2019 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.