Dynamite

How to spell dynamite

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dynamite

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dynamite mean?

1. nounA powerful explosive made from nitroglycerin absorbed into an inert material and shaped into sticks.
2. verbTo blow up or destroy something using an explosive charge.

Dynamite in a sentence

• noun

  The demolition crew used dynamite to bring down the old chimney.

• verb

  The engineers planned to dynamite the disused bridge at dawn.

• noun

  Miners once relied on dynamite to break through solid rock.

• verb

  The council voted to dynamite the condemned tower block.

Where does dynamite come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word was coined in 1867 by the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel for his new and more stable explosive, which absorbed nitroglycerin into a porous material so it could be handled safely. He built the name on the Greek dynamis, meaning 'power' or 'force', and added the suffix -ite, then common in the naming of minerals and chemical compounds. The same Greek root lies behind 'dynamic', 'dynamo', and 'dynasty', all of which carry the idea of power or strength. The wealth Nobel earned from dynamite later funded the Nobel Prizes, including the Peace Prize, a striking turn for the inventor of an explosive. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle vowel, written with an 'a' (dyn-A-mite) even though it sounds like a faint 'uh'.

How the word is built

• dynam- (from Greek dynamis: power, force)
• -ite (noun suffix used for minerals and compounds)