blow up
verb
Simple meaning
To explode or be destroyed by explosion.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
blohuhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbloʊˈʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
intransitivealso figuratively
To explode or be destroyed by explosion.
transitivealso figuratively
To cause (something or someone) to explode, or to destroy (something) or maim or kill (someone) by means of an explosion.
transitive
To inflate or fill with air, either by literally blowing or by using a pump.
Fill with gas or air
To swell or cause to enlarge
transitive
To enlarge or zoom in on.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To explode or be destroyed by explosion.
Used this way, blow up is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.