explosion

UK/ɪkˈspləʊ.ʒən/US/ɛkˈsploʊ.ʒən/

nounB12 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,725 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: explosions

An explosion is a violent bursting that sends everything outward. Pressure released all at once.

The physical sense covers bombs, gas leaks and boilers, and the noise is a side effect of air being shoved out of the way. The figurative sense is about sudden growth, so an explosion in demand or a population explosion is a very rapid increase. There is a third use about feeling, since an explosion of anger is a temper lost completely. The verb is explode and the adjective explosive covers both substances and situations.

Definitions of explosion

1nounexplosionA violent bursting outward, usually with noise.B1~89%
“The explosion blew out every window in the street.”
2nounsuddenA sudden great increase.B2~11%
“There has been an explosion in home working.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 18 sentences found in the wild and placed 18 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Where it comes from

Latin explōdo meant to drive something out by clapping, from plōdo, to clap or to strike. The noise was in the word long before the bursting was.

Latin
explōsiōnis
French
explosion
English, today
explosion

Built from

explōdo · Latin — to drive out by clapping
plōdo · Latin — to clap or strike

From French explosion, from Latin explōsiōnis, genitive form of explōsio, from explōdo (“to drive out by clapping”), from ex- and plōdo (“to clap or strike”). For more information see explode#Etymology.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 9 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

explosion in the wild

The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time.
Halifax Explosion
The North End of Halifax has several memorials to the victims of the explosion.
Halifax Explosion
Thus, there is an explosion of provable statements.
Principle of explosion
Artificial explosions have also been imposed by governments, and approved by the International Whaling Commission in emergency situations.
Exploding whale
The explosions occurred on July 30, 1916, in New York Harbor, killing at least seven people and wounding hundreds more.
Black Tom explosion

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the explōdo family

explosion explode

explosion — used about once every 201 pages · #1,725 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of explosion

1nounexplosionA violent bursting outward, usually with noise.B1~89%

“The explosion blew out every window in the street.”

2nounsuddenA sudden great increase.B2~11%

“There has been an explosion in home working.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 18 sentences found in the wild and placed 18 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.