BLAST WAVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does blast wave mean? 

• BLAST WAVE (noun)
  The noun BLAST WAVE has 1 sense:

1. a region of high pressure travelling through a gas at a high velocity

  Familiarity information: BLAST WAVE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLAST WAVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A region of high pressure travelling through a gas at a high velocity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

blast wave; shock wave

Context example:

the explosion created a shock wave

Hypernyms ("blast wave" is a kind of...):

undulation; wave ((physics) a movement up and down or back and forth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blast wave"):

sonic boom (an explosive sound caused by the shock wave of an airplane traveling faster than the speed of sound)

 Context examples 

Upon detonation, a first blast wave expelled an expanding fireball of plasma, a hot gas of electrically charged particles.

(Space Weather Events Linked to Human Activity, NASA)

The team also found that the maximum speed of the blast wave is about 12 million miles per hour.

(Chandra Movie Captures Expanding Debris from a Stellar Explosion, NASA)

This range in speed of the blast wave’s outward motion is caused by differences in the density of gas surrounding the supernova remnant.

(Chandra Movie Captures Expanding Debris from a Stellar Explosion, NASA)