Adjacent Words

Explosion definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

EXPLO'SION, n. s as z. [from explode.]
1. A bursting with noise; a bursting or sudden expansion of any elastic fluid,with force and a loud report; as the explosion of powder.
2. The discharge of a piece of ordnance with a loud report.
3. The sudden burst of sound in a volcano, etc.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a violent release of energy caused by a chemical or nuclear reaction [syn: explosion, detonation, blowup]
2: the act of exploding or bursting; "the explosion of the firecrackers awoke the children"; "the burst of an atom bomb creates enormous radiation aloft" [syn: explosion, burst]
3: a sudden great increase; "the population explosion"; "the information explosion"
4: the noise caused by an explosion; "the explosion was heard a mile away"
5: the terminal forced release of pressure built up during the occlusive phase of a stop consonant [syn: plosion, explosion]
6: a sudden outburst; "an explosion of laughter"; "an explosion of rage"
7: a golf shot from a bunker that typically moves sand as well as the golf ball

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Latin explosion-, explosio act of driving off by clapping, from explodere Date: 1667 1. the act or an instance of exploding <injured in a laboratory explosion> 2. a large-scale, rapid, or spectacular expansion or bursting out or forth <the explosion of suburbia> <an explosion of red hair> 3. the release of occluded breath that occurs in one kind of articulation of stop consonants

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the act or an instance of exploding. 2 a loud noise caused by something exploding. 3 a a sudden outburst of noise. b a sudden outbreak of feeling, esp. anger. 4 a rapid or sudden increase, esp. of population. Etymology: L explosio scornful rejection (as EXPLODE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Explosion Ex*plo"sion, n. [L. explosio a driving off by clapping: cf. F. explosion explosion. See Explode.] 1. The act of exploding; detonation; a chemical action which causes the sudden formation of a great volume of expanded gas; as, the explosion of gunpowder, of fire damp,etc. 2. A bursting with violence and loud noise, because of internal pressure; as, the explosion of a gun, a bomb, a steam boiler, etc. 3. A violent outburst of feeling, manifested by excited language, action, etc.; as, an explosion of wrath. A formidable explosion of high-church fanaticism. --Macaulay.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(explosions) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. An explosion is a sudden, violent burst of energy, for example one caused by a bomb. After the second explosion, all of London's main train and subway stations were shut down... Three people have been killed in a bomb explosion in northwest Spain. = blast N-COUNT 2. Explosion is the act of deliberately causing a bomb or similar device to explode. Bomb disposal experts blew up the bag in a controlled explosion... N-VAR 3. An explosion is a large rapid increase in the number or amount of something. The study also forecast an explosion in the diet soft-drink market... The spread of the suburbs has triggered a population explosion among America's deer. N-COUNT: with supp 4. An explosion is a sudden violent expression of someone's feelings, especially anger. Every time they met, Myra anticipated an explosion... = outburst N-COUNT 5. An explosion is a sudden and serious political protest or violence. ...the explosion of protest and violence sparked off by the killing of seven workers. N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Burst, bursting, detonation, blast, clap, pop, crack, sudden discharge.

Foolish Dictionary

A good chance to begin at the bottom and work up.

Moby Thesaurus

accelerando, acceleration, access, aggravation, backfire, bang, bark, beefing-up, blast, blaze, blaze of temper, blowing up, blowout, blowup, boom, burgeoning, burst, clap, concentration, condensation, consolidation, convulsion, crack, crash, cyclone, deepening, detonation, discharge, disconfirmation, disproof, disproval, disproving, enhancement, eruption, exacerbation, exaggeration, expansion, expose, exposure, fit, flare, flare-up, flash, fulguration, fulmination, fusillade, gale, gunshot, gust, heating-up, heightening, high words, hurricane, increase, information explosion, intensification, invalidation, irruption, magnification, mushrooming, negation, outbreak, outburst, paddy, paroxysm, pickup, pop, population explosion, redargution, redoubling, reductio ad absurdum, reinforcement, report, sally, salvo, scene, seizure, shot, spasm, speedup, step-up, storm, strengthening, tantrum, tempest, tightening, tornado, upheaval, volley, wax, whirlwind