gunpowder
/ˈɡʌnˌpaʊdə/US/ˈɡʌnˌpaʊdɚ/
gunpowder noun: an explosive mixture of saltpetre (potassium nitrate), charcoal and sulfur; formerly used in gunnery but now mostly used in fireworks. Also the ellipsis of gunpowder tea.
.jpg){kind=link}
Noun (1)
gunpowder (countable and uncountable, plural gunpowders)
- An explosive mixture of saltpetre (potassium nitrate), charcoal and sulfur; formerly used in gunnery but now mostly used in fireworks.
- They have been a bold, heroic, and purely self dependent nation, never having either courted,—or been subdued by—other Tribes or Europeans. But what early mind—a power—could face gunpowder and the firelocks? Hence their annihilation!ca. 1823, William E. Cormack, Cormack Papers, page 19/84 (note: on the annihilation of the Beothuk)
Verb
gunpowder (third-person singular simple present gunpowders, present participle gunpowdering, simple past and past participle gunpowdered)
- To destroy with gunpowder.
- […] he was […] never getting into quarrels with his neighbors and gunpowdering them out of house and home. His subjects loved him.1875, John H. Kingsbury, Kingsbury Sketches, page 54
Noun (2)
gunpowder (uncountable)
- Idli podi/milagai podi; ground-up dry spices mixed with oil and ghee and served alongside idli or dosa.
- Some restaurants try and give their dosas the "ethnic" touch by slipping along a small dish of mulaga podi-gunpowder mixed with oil as well, but that isn't always enough.1989, Bombay: The City Magazine, page 26
- It was a hardcore Andhra lunch from a restaurant famous for its lunch meals. And that is where I had my first run-in with 'gunpowder'. And to be honest, I hated it.2015 June 12, Priyadarshini Nandy, “South India's Spice Hero: How to Make the Famous Gunpowder”, in NDTV, archived from the original on 11 Apr 2021
Also used as
gunpowder is also the ellipsis of gunpowder tea.
gunpowder meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
gunpowder in Hindi
- explosive mixture
- बारूद bārūd, बारूत bārūt
gunpowder in Marathi
- बारूद
gunpowder in Urdu
- explosive mixture
- بارُود bārūd, بارُوت bārūt
gunpowder in Bengali
- explosive mixture
- বারুদ barud
More languagesFewer languages
- gunpowder in Telugu
- పేలుడు మందు pēluḍu mandu
- gunpowder in Malayalam
- വെടിമരുന്ന് veṭimarunnŭ
- gunpowder in Kannada
- ಗನ್ಪೌಡರ್
- gunpowder in Punjabi
- ਬਾਰੂਦ bārūd, ਬਰੂਦ barūd, بارُود bārūd
- gunpowder in Odia
- ବାରୁଦ, ବାରୂଦ
- gunpowder in Assamese
- বাৰুদ barud
- gunpowder in Nepali
- बारूद bārūd
- gunpowder in Pashto
- باروت bārut, دارو dāru
- gunpowder in Tagalog
- malilang, pulbura
- gunpowder in Arabic
- بَارُود bārūd
- gunpowder in Malay
- masiu, mensiu
- gunpowder in Indonesian
- bubuk mesiu
- gunpowder in Thai
- ดินปืน din-bpʉʉn
- gunpowder in Vietnamese
- thuốc súng
- gunpowder in Myanmar
- ယမ်းမှုန့် yam:hmun., ယမ်း yam:
Examples of gunpowder in a sentence
- “Bacon was Lord Chancellor of England and the first European to experiment with gunpowder.” — “No, you are conflating Francis Bacon and Roger Bacon.”
- Smelling victory amongst the gunpowder Graeme started shooting off his mouth.
- When you mix nitroglycerin with cellulous you get nitrocellulous DBA gunpowder.
Forms of gunpowder
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | gunpowders |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | gunpowders |
| present participle | gunpowdering |
| past participle | gunpowdered |
| past | gunpowdered |
Origin of gunpowder
From gun + powder.
Possibly due to its smell resembling gunpowder during the British Raj.
Words formed from gunpowder
Phrases with gunpowder
Questions about gunpowder
- What does gunpowder mean?
- Gunpowder means an explosive mixture of saltpetre (potassium nitrate), charcoal and sulfur; formerly used in gunnery but now mostly used in fireworks.
- What is gunpowder in Hindi?
- Gunpowder in Hindi is बारूद (bārūd), बारूत (bārūt). See Gunpowder meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is gunpowder?
- Gunpowder can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce gunpowder?
- Gunpowder is pronounced /ˈɡʌnˌpaʊdə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of gunpowder?
- The plural of gunpowder is gunpowders.
Words near gunpowder in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gunpowder (page history and authors); gunpowder (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gunpowder (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gunpowder (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gunpowder.wav.
Cite this entry: “gunpowder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gunpowder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.