Explosion
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A violent release of energy (sometimes mechanical, nuclear, or chemical); an act or instance of exploding. countable, uncountable
"A man was injured by an explosion caused by drilling into a missed shot at the Mendota mine above Silver Plume, Colo."
- 2 the act of exploding or bursting wordnet
- 3 The sound of an explosion. countable, uncountable
- 4 a golf shot from a bunker that typically moves sand as well as the golf ball wordnet
- 5 A sudden, uncontrolled or rapid increase, expansion, or bursting out. countable, uncountable
"As with the Lejeuneaceae, this pattern of massive speciation appears to be correlated with the Cretaceous explosion of the angiosperms and the simultaneous creation of a host of new microenvironments, differing in humidity, light intensity, texture, etc."
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 a sudden outburst wordnet
- 7 the terminal forced release of pressure built up during the occlusive phase of a stop consonant wordnet
- 8 a violent release of energy caused by a chemical or nuclear reaction wordnet
- 9 the noise caused by an explosion wordnet
- 10 a sudden great increase wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"The whole sky lit up and there was an explosion."
Etymology
From French explosion, from Latin explōsiōnis, genitive form of explōsio, from explōdo (“I drive out by clapping”), from ex- and plōdo (“I clap or strike”). For more information see explode.
Related phrases
More for "explosion"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.