How to spell explosion

hear itex·plo·sion/ɪk'sploʊʒən/nounSilent and tricky

What it means: A violent release of energy.

In a sentence: The fireworks made a big explosion in the sky.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as explotion or explotion.

Same family: explosive, exploded, exploding, exploder, explosively. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Explosion” comes from the Latin word “explodere,” which originally meant ‘to drive out by clapping’ (as crowds would clap actors off the stage). Over time, it came to mean a loud, violent outburst, and later the physical bursting we think of today.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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