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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

explode

/ɪkˈsploʊd/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:03
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What does explode mean?

verb

  1. To fly apart with sudden violent force; to blow up, to burst, to detonate, to go off.
  2. To destroy with an explosion.
  3. (figuratively) To make a violent or emotional outburst; to suddenly give expression to powerful and often negative or unpleasant emotion, especially anger.
More meanings (11)

verb

  1. (figuratively) To increase suddenly.
  2. To increase arbitrarily or boundlessly.
  3. To destroy violently or abruptly.
  4. To create an exploded view of.
  5. (figuratively) To emerge suddenly.
  6. To break (a delimited string of text) into several smaller strings by removing the separators.
  7. To decompress (data) that was previously imploded.
  8. To open all doors and hatches on an automobile.
  9. Of a die, to produce the highest face result and consequently reroll.
  10. (archaic) To disprove or debunk.
  11. (slang, vulgar) To ejaculate.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ɪkˈsploʊd/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

The bomb, timed to explode at the very end of the session, threatened to destroy all my hopes.
Anna Howard Shaw; Elizabeth Garver JordanThe Story of a PioneerProject Gutenberg ebook #354
Stunning the sentry with a bomb which, fortunately, refused to explode, they proceeded to the front line to seek gas emplacements.
Victor LefebureThe Riddle of the Rhine: Chemical Strategy in Peace and WarProject Gutenberg ebook #1272
More book examples (3)
It was in the west that the mine was expected to explode which had long been dug under the whole of Germany.
Friedrich SchillerThe History of the Thirty Years' WarTranslated by A. J. W. (Alexander James William) MorrisonProject Gutenberg ebook #566
The automatic detonator is set in motion and the bomb released to explode approximately at the height to which it is set.
Frederick Arthur Ambrose TalbotAeroplanes and Dirigibles of WarProject Gutenberg ebook #793
They would put saltpetre to charcoal, or charcoal to sulphur, or saltpetre to sulphur, and so were ever unable to make the compound explode.
William BoothIn Darkest England, and the Way OutProject Gutenberg ebook #475