noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The explosion of a bomb (or similar weapon) or meteoroid in the air rather than on the ground.
2. 2
   an explosion in the atmosphere wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To explode in this manner.

Synonyms

All synonyms

altitude peakautomatic controlblast-offburnburnoutceiling

Etymology

From air + burst.

Related phrases

meteor airburstnuclear airburst

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.