explosive B2 Topic:Emotions & Feelings US /ɛkˈsploʊsɪv/ UK /ɛkˈspləʊsɪv/ See IPA manual Freq #6424 Meanings 1 adj Able to explode or likely to explode. Police found an explosive device hidden in the building. 2 adj Likely to cause sudden anger, argument, or violence. Immigration has become an explosive political issue. 3 adj Sudden and loud. There was an explosive burst of applause. Thesaurus Synonyms 2 adj · likely to cause sudden... volatile Word family Forms explosives Derived forms autoexplosivecryptoexplosiveelectroexplosiveexplosivelyexplosivenessinexplosivemicroexplosivenonexplosivesila-explosivesuperexplosivesuperexplosivelyunexplosive Related forms explode Common collocations explosive device Adjective + noun Etymology AI details From Latin explōs-, stem of the perfect passive participle of explōdō + the suffix -ive. Topics Emotions & Feelings External links Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # explosive **Type:** Word **Level:** B2 **Part of speech:** adj **IPA (US):** /ɛkˈsploʊsɪv/ **IPA (UK):** /ɛkˈspləʊsɪv/ **Frequency rank:** 6424 ## Meanings 1. Able to explode or likely to explode. 2. Likely to cause sudden anger, argument, or violence. 3. Sudden and loud. ## Examples - Police found an explosive device hidden in the building. - Immigration has become an explosive political issue. - There was an explosive burst of applause. ## Derived Forms - autoexplosive - cryptoexplosive - electroexplosive - explosively - explosiveness - inexplosive - microexplosive - nonexplosive - sila-explosive - superexplosive - superexplosively - unexplosive ## Related Forms - explode ## Etymology From Latin explōs-, stem of the perfect passive participle of explōdō + the suffix -ive. ## AI Etymology Explosive comes from Latin explōs-, stem of the perfect passive participle of explōdō + the suffix -ive. In current use, the main senses are “Able to explode or likely to explode” and “Likely to cause sudden anger, argument, or violence”. ## Topics - Emotions & Feelings markdown