EXPLOSIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does explosive mean? 

• EXPLOSIVE (noun)
  The noun EXPLOSIVE has 1 sense:

1. a chemical substance that undergoes a rapid chemical change (with the production of gas) on being heated or struck

  Familiarity information: EXPLOSIVE used as a noun is very rare.

• EXPLOSIVE (adjective)
  The adjective EXPLOSIVE has 3 senses:

1. serving to explode or characterized by explosion or sudden outburst

2. liable to lead to sudden change or violence

3. sudden and loud

  Familiarity information: EXPLOSIVE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXPLOSIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A chemical substance that undergoes a rapid chemical change (with the production of gas) on being heated or struck

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("explosive" is a kind of...):

chemical; chemical substance (material produced by or used in a reaction involving changes in atoms or molecules)

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

burster; bursting charge; charge; explosive charge (a quantity of explosive to be set off at one time)

explosive compound (a compound that is explosive)

explosive mixture (a mixture that is explosive)

impulse explosive; propellant explosive (an explosive that is used to propel projectiles from guns or to propel rockets and missiles or to launch torpedos and depth charges)

load; payload; warhead (the front part of a guided missile or rocket or torpedo that carries the nuclear or explosive charge or the chemical or biological agents)

azoimide; HN; hydrazoic acid; hydrogen azide (a colorless explosive liquid that is volatile and poisonous and foul-smelling)

high explosive (a powerful chemical explosive that produces gas at a very high rate)

low explosive (an explosive with a low rate of combustion)

gunpowder; powder (a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur in a 75:15:10 ratio which is used in gunnery, time fuses, and fireworks)

Ballistite; smokeless powder (an explosive (trade name Ballistite) that burns with relatively little smoke; contains pyrocellulose and is used as a propellant)

nitramine; tetryl (a yellow crystalline explosive solid that is used in detonators)

Holonyms ("explosive" is a part of...):

explosive device (device that bursts with sudden violence from internal energy)

Derivation:

explosive (serving to explode or characterized by explosion or sudden outburst)

• EXPLOSIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Serving to explode or characterized by explosion or sudden outburst

Context example:

an explosive temper

Similar:

detonative (exploding almost instantaneously)

Antonym:

nonexplosive (not explosive)

Derivation:

explosive (a chemical substance that undergoes a rapid chemical change (with the production of gas) on being heated or struck)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Liable to lead to sudden change or violence

Synonyms:

explosive; volatile

Context example:

a volatile situation with troops and rioters eager for a confrontation

Similar:

unstable (lacking stability or fixity or firmness)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Sudden and loud

Context example:

an explosive laugh

Similar:

sudden (happening without warning or in a short space of time)

 Context examples 

Astronomers suspected that, if heavier elements did form in neutron star collisions, signatures of those elements could be detected in kilonovae, the explosive aftermaths of these mergers.

(First identification of a heavy element born from neutron star collision, ESO)

The discovery of tridymite might induce scientists to rethink the volcanic history of Mars, suggesting that the planet once had explosive volcanoes that led to the presence of the mineral.

(NASA Scientists Discover Unexpected Mineral on Mars, NASA)

There they found the flung-out debris from the explosive birth of this clump of massive stars, looking like a cosmic version of fireworks with giant streamers rocketing off in all directions.

(Dramatic Stellar Fireworks of Star Birth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

If these ancient rocks are analogs for the magma systems underlying modern supervolcanoes, then explosive volcanism may have been far more abundant in Earth's past than it is today.

(Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone may have been more active in the past, NSF)

The size and explosive growth rate of the newfound hole, however, surprised them.

(Huge Cavity in Antarctic Glacier Signals Rapid Decay, NASA)

This substance is used to treat certain skin diseases, especially psoriasis, and is used in the synthesis of dyes, drugs, explosives, flavorings, perfumes, preservatives, synthetic resins, paints and stains.

(Coal Tar, NCI Thesaurus)

But I can assure you that so far as the essentials go—the storage of munitions, the preparation for submarine attack, the arrangements for making high explosives—nothing is prepared.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nitroaromatic compounds containing two nitrogen groups on a phenyl ring used as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, explosives, and comprise a group of environmental pollutants.

(Dinitrophenyl Compounds, NCI Thesaurus)

For example, all the silver, nickel, and copper in the earth and even in our bodies came from the explosive death throes of stars

(Kepler Catches Early Flash of an Exploding Star, NASA)

It was an explosive bark, brief and joyous, but a bark.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)