explosions

Noun

explosion (countable and uncountable, plural explosions)

1. A violent release of energy (sometimes mechanical, nuclear, or chemical); an act or instance of exploding.
   • A man was injured by an explosion caused by drilling into a missed shot at the Mendota mine above Silver Plume, Colo.1913, Mining and Engineering World, page 171
2. The sound of an explosion.
3. A sudden, uncontrolled or rapid increase, expansion, or bursting out.
   • As with the Lejeuneaceae, this pattern of massive speciation appears to be correlated with the Cretaceous explosion of the angiosperms and the simultaneous creation of a host of new microenvironments, differing in humidity, light intensity, texture, etc.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, pages 3-4