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dynamite

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A class of explosives made from nitroglycerine in an absorbent medium such as kieselguhr, used in mining and blasting.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dynuhmyt

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdaɪnəmaɪt

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A class of explosives made from nitroglycerine in an absorbent medium such as kieselguhr, used in mining and blasting.

  2. figurativelyslanguncountable

    Anything exceptionally dangerous, exciting or wonderful.

  3. informalproscribed

    A stick of trinitrotoluene (TNT).

verb

  1. transitiveof brakes

    To apply maximum pressure to very quickly.

  2. intransitiveof brakes

    To lock up from being invoked too suddenly.

  3. figuratively

    To dismantle or destroy.

  4. To blow up with dynamite or other high explosive.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A class of explosives made from nitroglycerine in an absorbent medium such as kieselguhr, used in mining and blasting.

Used this way, dynamite 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
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use dynamite

  • “They used dynamite to blast away the rocks for the new road.”noun

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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.