Detonation

How to spell detonation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce detonation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does detonation mean?

1. nounThe act of exploding, or the violent release of energy that produces a blast.

Detonation in a sentence

• The controlled detonation of the old bridge drew a large crowd.

• Engineers timed the detonation to bring the chimney down safely.

Where does detonation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb detonare, which combined the prefix de-, used here as an intensifier, with tonare, meaning 'to thunder'. The literal sense was therefore 'to thunder down' or 'to roar out', a vivid image of a sudden, sky-splitting noise. The same tonare root thunders away inside the related English words 'astonish' and 'stun', both of which originally suggested being struck as if by a thunderclap. English took 'detonation' in the early 1700s, largely by way of French détonation, as chemists and engineers needed a precise term for the violent release of energy in an explosion. The connection to thunder is a useful spelling cue: the middle is 'ton', the sound of a great noise, not 'tan' or 'den'.

How the word is built

• de- (down, intensive)
• ton (from tonare: to thunder)
• -ation (noun of action)