verb
explode
To burst violently, releasing energy, sound, or material.
Where it comes from
Explode ordinarily means to burst violently, releasing energy, sound, or material. Explode comes from Latin explodere, to drive off by clapping, formed from ex-, out, and plaudere, to clap. The same clapping verb, with ad-, is behind applaud. English first used explode for rejecting or driving something out, a sense preserved in an exploded theory.
How the meaning developed
Violent expulsion with noise then helped produce the modern sense of bursting with force.
Sources
Definitions adapted from Open English WordNet where applicable. License and attribution. Word-history text comes from Lexifour’s sourced social research; pages are assembled automatically, not individually fact-checked on every update.
Updated 2026-10-05. Report a correction.