Explode Once Meant Clapping an Actor Off the Stage
To explode is to burst violently. The Roman original meant to drive a performer off stage by clapping, and the road from one to the other is short.
To explode is to burst apart with force and noise. The Latin *explodere* meant something quite different: to drive an actor from the stage by clapping and hooting. English kept the noise, dropped the theatre, and by the eighteenth century the word had become the one we use for gunpowder.
- To burst violently. *The boiler exploded.*
- To increase suddenly. *Demand exploded.*
- To disprove something firmly. *That myth has been exploded.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | explode | It could explode. |
| Past | exploded | The shell exploded. |
| Noun | explosion | A loud explosion. |
| Adjective | explosive | Explosive growth. |
| Noun | explosives | Handling explosives. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The tank exploded on impact.The literal sense.
- The city's population exploded after 1950.Sudden growth, no violence.
- The theory was exploded by a single experiment.The older sense: driven out, discredited.
Explode, burst, detonate and erupt
- Explode — burst outward with force
- Detonate — set off an explosive deliberately
- Burst — break open from pressure inside
- Erupt — break out, especially from a volcano
- Implode — collapse inward, the opposite
From Latin *explodere*, to hiss a player off the stage, from *ex* (out) and *plaudere* (to clap) — the same *plaudere* as in *applaud* and *plaudits*.
Explode or implode?
Explode is outward, implode is inward. A building brought down on itself is said to implode.
What does *exploded view* mean in a diagram?
A drawing showing all parts separated slightly along their axes, so you can see how they fit together.