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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
explosion
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bomb blast/explosion
▪ The restaurant was destroyed in a massive bomb blast.
a population explosion/boom (=when the population increases quickly and by a large amount)
▪ What will be the long-term effects of this population explosion?
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪ First came a humming, then a big explosion, and my hearing went.
▪ Stupidly, I tried to throw it on the fire and caused a big fireball explosion that singed my arms and face.
▪ It was the second big explosion there in a year.
combinatorial
▪ Both systems were faced with a combinatorial explosion of partial solutions since the input data matched very many rules or partial descriptions.
▪ These create a combinatorial explosion of possible genotypes on which natural selection acts.
▪ They reduce the average branching factor and hence the potential combinatorial explosion of paths through the graph.
▪ This produces a considerable combinatorial explosion, making processing beyond the first level somewhat impractical.
▪ This can help provide more domain-specific definitions, and reduce the combinatorial explosion produced by expanding definitions beyond the first level.
▪ What is required therefore is a method of compressing these definitions so that this combinatorial explosion is reduced.
▪ We shall now look at ways of reducing the potential combinatorial explosion of breadth-first search. 9.2.
▪ This reduces the combinatorial explosion and decreases the potential for spurious overlaps through the co-incidence of alternative word senses.
controlled
▪ Local residents were evacuated in case there needed to be a controlled explosion.
▪ The hoax devices were destroyed in controlled explosions by army bomb disposal experts, using remote-controlled vehicles.
▪ After a series of controlled explosions, the van was removed from the scene early yesterday.
▪ The station area was evacuated while the controlled explosion was carried out.
▪ The device was removed from the shop and detonated in a controlled explosion.
▪ The army carried out a controlled explosion on the car but it was found to contain no explosives.
▪ The heat released in this reaction, which is like a controlled hydrogen bomb explosion, is what makes the star shine.
▪ The bomb disposal unit destroyed the bomb with a controlled explosion.
huge
▪ In 1873 much of the mill was destroyed by a huge boiler explosion.
▪ In the evening, gunfire and huge explosions erupted along the former front line, but no further injuries were reported.
▪ There was, he had told Mr Malik, a huge explosion planned for 16.00 hours.
▪ A huge explosion drowned the enemy fire and Killion caught a glimpse of a burning bomber slowly sliding along on its nose.
▪ Two workers were slightly hurt in a huge explosion and fire at the Conoco oil refinery at Immingham on the Humber estuary.
large
▪ Films taken by a submersible robot established that the ship had sunk as a result of a large explosion.
▪ Loss of atmospheric gases and impactor materials to space becomes even more important for larger explosions.
▪ All large explosions are safely out at sea.
▪ And high temperatures automatically followed, since the whole process was nothing more than a large explosion, albeit a controlled one.
loud
▪ There was a loud explosion and the flames roared fiercer.
▪ Three of my men entered the woods, and we heard an ex-tremely loud explosion.
▪ I heard a loud explosion just to my left.
▪ This time, I was up on the wooded area myself, and we heard a loud explosion behind us.
▪ I had gone a few paces when there was a loud crashing explosion behind me.
▪ The frequency of published reports has actually declined since 1960 because people tend to dismiss loud explosions as merely military sonic booms.
▪ I had been playing for about five minutes when there was a very loud explosion very close at hand.
▪ The utter silence fell like a loud explosion.
massive
▪ The impact had caused a massive explosion which had ravaged the planet.
▪ Witnesses reported at least one massive explosion, which rocked houses up to a quarter of a mile away.
▪ A massive explosion occurred during testing at Tobolsk on the same pipeline in October.
nuclear
▪ On Aug. 29 Nazarbayev closed the nuclear testing site at Semipalatinsk where over 500 nuclear explosions had been carried out since 1949.
▪ Setting off his first nuclear explosion was fun.
▪ The nearby Trinity Site is where the first nuclear explosion took place.
▪ Even modest-sized nuclear explosions can have effects detectable over intercontinental distances.
▪ Strangely, as they soar ever upwards, the balloons take on a mushroom-shape as if there's been a nuclear explosion beneath.
▪ You could have what they call a radiological weapon that would not have a nuclear explosion.
▪ Accidental nuclear explosions can not occur; the bombs are designed so they can not be exploded by any chance event.
▪ We would call this a one-kiloton nuclear explosion.
small
▪ A patrol in the city centre was crossing a road when a small explosion occurred near a fence-post.
▪ It was a very small explosion, but it reverberated loudly and quickly across Washington.
▪ I kept hearing these small explosions and I wondered what could possibly be the cause.
▪ Another, smaller explosion at the row of ATMs did less damage.
▪ There have been smaller explosions in recent years, such as 1975, 1987, 1994 and 1998.
▪ There was a small explosion in the nitrogen cooling tanks.
▪ He says that they carried weapons of a kind which fire by creating a small explosion.
▪ However, ice buried meters deep may be excavated at any time by a small impact explosion.
sudden
▪ Then there would be the sudden explosions of violence late at night after the men had been drinking.
▪ I want... fireworks: a sudden explosion!
▪ But as the plane climbed in a steep curve above the Sussex countryside it was rocked by a sudden explosion.
▪ He had nearly reached the landing when he felt a sudden and violent explosion in his head.
▪ A sudden explosion of brightness lit up the whole sky.
▪ Against the darkened portion of the asteroid there was a sudden, dazzling explosion of light.
▪ It's time to open the presents - A sudden explosion of glass made him jump.
tremendous
▪ On November 13, 1932, four tremendous explosions blew out the entrances and exits of the two Arizona tunnels.
▪ Hundreds reported that it fell to earth north of them, and a tremendous explosion ensued.
▪ I heard a large whoosh and a tremendous explosion right in front of me.
▪ With a tremendous explosion, the guts of the carrier are torn out.
▪ Instantly, there was a tremendous explosion.
▪ They climbed to safety, and a moment later a tremendous explosion rocked the gorge.
violent
▪ This caused a violent explosion resulting in extensive damage.
▪ He had nearly reached the landing when he felt a sudden and violent explosion in his head.
▪ As a result, violent explosions rocked the vessel and led to its abandonment within an hour of the attack.
▪ Calderas created by violent explosions can be of enormous size.
▪ That prevented a potentially violent political explosion.
▪ Fearing a more violent explosion of disagreement, pride in not wanting to be the first to make a move.
▪ It is commonly said that tsunamis are usually triggered by earthquakes or violent volcanic explosions.
▪ According to these learned fellows, the universe began with a violent explosion.
■ NOUN
bomb
▪ Mr. Bowis My right hon. and learned Friend will recall the bomb explosion a month ago on the track in my constituency.
▪ For comparison, the atomic bomb explosions that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki were about 20 kilotons each.
▪ A bomb explosion aboard a ferry south of Trincomalee on Sept. 10 killed 24 soldiers and 15 civilians.
▪ The heat released in this reaction, which is like a controlled hydrogen bomb explosion, is what makes the star shine.
▪ Three people were reported killed and three injured in bomb explosions in the capital Santo Domingo on Sept. 23.
▪ The bomb explosion during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics seems to have been pivotal.
▪ In Johannesburg two men died in overnight bomb explosions at the city's main railway station.
▪ On Aug. 22 Abdullah stated that there had been 170 bomb explosions in the state in the previous 12 months.
gas
▪ Coal gas production became involved with safe gas explosions.
▪ A natural gas explosion that killed three and injured more than 20 others in 1992 has made the community particularly wary.
▪ Ronan Point, a 22-storey block in East London, crumbled like a pack of cards after a gas explosion in 1968.
▪ There had been a gas explosion and there were several casualties.
population
▪ Pressures on carers will increase as Britain faces a population explosion among the most vulnerable elderly people.
▪ It could be a major factor is reversing the deadly momentum of the population explosion.
▪ He cites in support of this the population explosion.
▪ Mention procreation, and they talk about the population explosion.
▪ Pettitt sees urban services in particular offering vast scope for expansion as city fathers wake up to the dangers from the car population explosion.
▪ As the summer reaches its peak, there will be a population explosion of butterflies.
▪ Living with a partner, 6. Population explosion, 7.
▪ But nomatterhow hard they are worked the population explosion continues.
■ VERB
cause
▪ The objectors said radio waves from the latter could cause explosions in the plant.
▪ Stupidly, I tried to throw it on the fire and caused a big fireball explosion that singed my arms and face.
▪ They have also pleaded not guilty to causing the explosion and possessing explosives with intent to endanger life.
▪ Black powder was used in the pipe bomb that caused the explosion, Daschle said.
▪ The impact had caused a massive explosion which had ravaged the planet.
▪ Twenty years ago we would have turned up the sound, wondering what caused the explosion.
▪ A man and a woman were charged on April 15 with conspiracy to cause explosions and with possession of explosives and arms.
▪ Which House aides said it might take several days to reach a conclusion about what caused the explosion.
control
▪ A controlled explosion was carried out at 12.30am.
▪ It was later destroyed in a controlled explosion.
▪ This is very much like a controlled, continuous explosion taking place.
▪ Police carried out several controlled explosions of suspect packages at the site.
create
▪ Calderas created by violent explosions can be of enormous size.
▪ These create a combinatorial explosion of possible genotypes on which natural selection acts.
▪ He says that they carried weapons of a kind which fire by creating a small explosion.
destroy
▪ The hoax devices were destroyed in controlled explosions by army bomb disposal experts, using remote-controlled vehicles.
▪ Two nearby cars were destroyed in the explosion.
▪ All four devices, destroyed by controlled explosions, were harmless.
▪ It was later destroyed in a controlled explosion.
die
▪ Richard Penzer, whose sister Judy died in the explosion, said he felt better after talking to the president.
▪ Then it crashed to the ground and died, no explosions, no flames reaching to the sky.
▪ One hundred sixty people died today in the explosion of a jet on takeoff from Djakarta.
▪ Six bystanders also died in the explosion.
follow
▪ All this came to an abrupt end following an explosion on one of his sites.
▪ During the flurry of action that followed the explosion of the mine, the bombardment of the city had continued.
▪ There followed an explosion, and another a few seconds later.
▪ There was an unnatural silence, like the uncanny hush immediately following an explosion.
▪ In 1985, a girl suffered serious burns following an explosion in a house 50 metres from a landfill in North Yorkshire.
hear
▪ Fishermen reported hearing the explosion and bits of debris were washed up for months afterwards.
▪ These witnesses had heard an explosion and seen a column of smoke rise from behind a range of hills in Soviet territory.
▪ I heard a loud explosion just to my left.
▪ This time, I was up on the wooded area myself, and we heard a loud explosion behind us.
▪ Edouard was in the car, on the far side of the square, when he heard the explosion.
▪ I started to circle the smoke and flames below us when we heard explosions.
▪ He reported hearing a second explosion.
▪ I remember hearing the explosion from my back door.
injure
▪ Three people were reported killed and three injured in bomb explosions in the capital Santo Domingo on Sept. 23.
▪ Twenty-one people were killed and 167 injured in the explosions at two Birmingham city centre pubs in 1974.
▪ Fourteen people injured in the explosions were still being treated at Warrington general hospital yesterday.
▪ Two Commercial Union building maintenance men and one security guard were injured in the explosion.
kill
▪ More than 2,000 people have been killed in pipeline explosions in the past two years.
▪ Dad got killed in a mine explosion.
▪ Thirty-four passengers were killed in the explosion that followed.
▪ Three young soldiers were killed instantly when an explosion inside the reactor forced it literally through the roof of its housing.
▪ Two men were killed in Monday's explosion at Castleford, Yorks, and three are still seriously ill in hospital.
▪ Scrutton, 38, was killed in the explosion.
▪ Between 1839 and 1845, 224 men and boys were killed by explosions.
lead
▪ Liquid alcohol used to warm food can be toxic and improper handling can lead to an explosion.
▪ Whatever the reason, the expansion has led to an explosion of interest.
▪ This is the first stage of a nuclear reaction which can lead to an explosion.
▪ In others, unsatisfactory political or economic conditions have led to an explosion of protest behavior and political violence against the regime.
▪ If it is too long it could lead to an explosion of potential interpretations.
produce
▪ Catastrophic fragmentation Catastrophic fragmentation is a likely means of producing an atmospheric explosion of a bolide.
▪ This tiny rock carries enough kinetic energy to produce an explosion equivalent to several thousand tons of high explosives.
▪ This produces a considerable combinatorial explosion, making processing beyond the first level somewhat impractical.
set
▪ The stage therefore seems set for an explosion of counselling.
▪ Now imagine 5 billion people, the entire population of Earth, each setting off a 24ton explosion at the same time.
▪ The scene was now set for the final explosion.
▪ A short-circuit set off an explosion in the high-pressure chamber, a fire brigade official said.
▪ They had been deliberately set to defer the explosions.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a violent storm/earthquake/explosion etc
▪ According to these learned fellows, the universe began with a violent explosion.
▪ During a violent storm it broke away and drifted westwards until it hit land on the barren headland of San Quentin.
▪ Passing beneath it, Crevecoeur was reminded of a violent storm of hail beating upon his head.
▪ The second is part of the river Indus, which was diverted after a violent earthquake in 1819.
▪ The slaves gathered on August 30, 1800, but disbanded because a violent storm and flood made military operations impossible.
▪ This caused a violent explosion resulting in extensive damage.
▪ Travelling home one night in a violent storm, Polly was struck by lightning and had to be destroyed.
▪ Within minutes the brown patch of sky enveloped me, as a violent storm swept across the dunes.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a nuclear explosion
▪ An explosion of conflict last month left at least six people dead in the town.
▪ an explosion of laughter
▪ Murray was killed instantly by the explosion.
▪ No-one can say where the amazing explosion of digital services will take us.
▪ Officials insist the case is unrelated to the explosion in homicide rates among teenagers.
▪ Rabbits and ducks have been contributing to a population explosion in the park.
▪ The company cannot meet demand, and has seen an explosion of customer complaints.
▪ The noise of the explosion could be heard all over the city.
▪ These people are full of hope. An economic explosion is underway in their country.
▪ We live in the century of population explosion, with the world's population doubling at least every 25 years.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A massive explosion occurred during testing at Tobolsk on the same pipeline in October.
▪ All large explosions are safely out at sea.
▪ Another, smaller explosion at the row of ATMs did less damage.
▪ Even modest-sized nuclear explosions can have effects detectable over intercontinental distances.
▪ Pressures on carers will increase as Britain faces a population explosion among the most vulnerable elderly people.
▪ The explosion rivalled Vesuvius, Pelee and others of the historical era.
▪ The change in instrumentation thus touched off an explosion of information.
▪ When some one or something stops them from getting their own way, their frustration can build up to explosion point.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Explosion

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.

  4. a sudden and substantial increase; a rapid acceleration; as, the population explosion.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
explosion

1620s, "action of driving out with violence and noise," from French explosion, from Latin explosionem (nominative explosio) "a driving off by clapping," noun of action from past participle stem of explodere "drive out by clapping" (see explode for origin and sense evolution). Meaning "a going off with violence and noise" is from 1660s. Sense of "a rapid increase or development" is first attested 1953.

Wiktionary
explosion

n. A violent release of energy (sometimes mechanical, nuclear, or chemical.)

WordNet
explosion
  1. n. a violent release of energy caused by a chemical or nuclear reaction [syn: detonation, blowup]

  2. the act of exploding or bursting something; "the explosion of the firecrackers awoke the children"; "the burst of an atom bomb creates enormous radiation aloft" [syn: 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]

  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

Wikipedia
Explosion

An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel via supersonic shock waves. Subsonic explosions are created by low explosives through a slower burning process known as deflagration. When caused by a man-made device such as an exploding rocket or firework, the audible component of an explosion is referred to as its "report" (which can also be used as a verb, e.g., "the rocket reported loudly upon impact".)

Explosion (disambiguation)

An explosion is a sudden increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner.

Explosion, Explode or Exploder may also refer to:

  • Explosion! Museum of Naval Firepower, in Gosport, Hampshire, England
  • ex.plode.us, a defunct Internet search engine
  • Exploder, a mechanism used to fire the warhead of a torpedo

In music:

  • Explosion! The Sound of Slide Hampton, a 1962 album by Slide Hampton
  • The Explosion, an American punk rock band
    • The Explosion (EP), a 2000 EP by the band
  • The Exploder, an American hardcore punk band
  • The Exploders, an Australian alternative rock band
  • Explode (album), a 2003 album by The Unseen
  • "Explode" (Nelly Furtado song), a 2003 song by Nelly Furtado
  • "Explode" (Cover Drive song), 2012
  • "Explosions" (Ellie Goulding song)
  • "Exploder", a song by Audioslave from Audioslave
  • "Explode", a song by Damageplan from New Found Power

In film:

  • Explosion (1973 film), a 1973 Romanian film
  • Explosion (2014 film), a 2015 American drama film directed by Matt Sobel
Explosion (1973 film)

Explosion is a 1973 Romanian drama film directed by Mircea Drăgan. It was entered into the 8th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Diploma.

Explosion (1923 film)

Explosion'' (German:Schlagende Wetter'') is a 1923 German silent film directed by Karl Grune.

Usage examples of "explosion".

Soon there was a terrific explosion as the pent-up air of the planetoid broke through its weakening container, and the sluggish river of allotropic ion flowed in an ever larger stream, ever faster.

Van Effen stabbed the button and less than two seconds later, deep and muffled like a distant underwater explosion but very unmistakable for all that - to anyone with normal hearing, the sound must have been audible up to a kilometre away - the reverberation from the detonating amatol rolled across the square.

At each intersection the ambulance left the ground and fell back to earth with a thundering explosion, almost hurling her to the ceiling.

Champeuois reports the case of a Sumatra boy of seven, who was injured to such an extent by an explosion as to necessitate the amputation of all his extremities, and, despite his tender age and the extent of his injuries, the boy completely recovered.

The hull was angling downward in the darkness, he could feel it, and he could almost see it in the light of a secondary explosion from aft--the diesel fuel oil tank exploding.

ALBERTINE JOHNSON I was sitting before my third or fourth jellybean, which is anisette, grain alcohol, a lit match, and small wet explosion in the brain.

In the mysterious manner of explosions, it sucked the navigator downwards, while blowing the astrodome, and the wireless operator standing under it, out into the night unharmed.

Again, the explosion of balked fury, as he cut Alithiel downward to gut the Mad Prophet like a rabbit.

Though the barographs themselves gave no indication whence this wave had come, the variation in its intensity at different meteorological observatories could be accounted for by the law of inverse squares on the supposition that the explosion which started the wave had occurred at fifty-five degrees north, seventy-five degrees west.

With intermittent desperation, they began to shoot over our barrage again, and the explosions of their rockets flashed at widely scattered points beyond.

By the time the whole exothermic conglomerate finally crashed into the side of the Death Star, the impact was momentous enough to actually jolt the battle station, setting off internal explosions and thunderings all through its network of reactors, munitions, and halls.

Two more explosions, highly visible through the screen wall of the hootch, made my fight with the mosquito net more frantic.

I yelled when there was a lull in the explosions, reaching up to pull the string on the light to plunge the hootch into total darkness.

Many of the individual motes themselves detonated in a clustering hyperspherical storm of lethal sparks, followed sequentially by another and another echelon of explosions erupting amongst the wave of ships in a layered hierarchy of destruction.

The resulting explosion devastated this macrocosm and turned it into a desert.