explosion
nounUK /ɪkˈspləʊ.ʒən/ · US /ɛkˈsploʊ.ʒən/
Etymology 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.
1
A violent release of energy (sometimes mechanical, nuclear, or chemical); an act or instance of exploding.
- A man was injured by an explosion caused by drilling into a missed shot at the Mendota mine above Silver Plume, Colo.1913, Mining and Engineering World, page 171:
2
The sound of an explosion.
3
A sudden, uncontrolled or rapid increase, expansion, or bursting out.
- 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.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, pages 3-4:
- Meteorologists describe this medieval warm epoch as the ‘Little Optimum’, and they cite it as the explanation of such phenomena as the Viking explosion into Russia, France, Iceland, and the northwestern Atlantic.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 139:
2 more examples
- Her image is supposedly rebellious, but she looks scrubbed and healthy, with an explosion of blonde hair and generous curves shoved into too-tight clothing.2005 June 3, Mark Tungate, Media Monoliths: How Great Media Brands Thrive and Survive, Kogan Page Publishers, →ISBN, page 38:
- All this has led to an explosion of protest across China, including among a middle class that has discovered nimbyism. That worries the government, which fears that environmental activism could become the foundation for more general political opposition. It is therefore dealing with pollution in two ways—suppression and mitigation.2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- Synonyms
- bang, blast, boom, burst, detonation, eruption, fulmination
- Antonyms
- implosion
- Derived terms
- bacon explosion, Cambrian explosion, controlled explosion, Coulomb explosion, counterexplosion, cryptoexplosion, explosionlike, explosion-proof, explosionproof, explosion ship, explosion shot, explosiony, hyper explosion, hyper-explosion, hyperexplosion, implosion, like an explosion in a paint factory, microexplosion, nonexplosion, nuclear explosion, smoke explosion, superexplosion