napalm
/ˈneɪ.pɑːm/
napalm noun: a highly flammable, viscous substance, designed to stick to the body while burning, used in warfare as an incendiary especially in wooded areas.
Noun
napalm (usually uncountable, plural napalms)
- A highly flammable, viscous substance, designed to stick to the body while burning, used in warfare as an incendiary especially in wooded areas.
- A trio of needle-nosed silver Phantom jets descended from the clouds and dropped a colossal load of napalm on the jungle. Flames turned the screen red and orange. Silence followed.
- “You smell that?” Kilgore said, almost to himself. Then, louder, “You smell that?” Lance, the champion surfer, asked “What?” Kilgore, lit by the glow of burning trees, retorted, “Napalm, son—nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we...2013 April 1, Robert M. Neer, “PARIAH”, in Napalm: An American Biography, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 140
- Anything very incendiary; dynamite.
- When leaked, the controversial documents proved to be political napalm.
- sexual napalm
Verb
napalm (third-person singular simple present napalms, present participle napalming, simple past and past participle napalmed)
napalm meaning in Hindi, Bengali and Vietnamese
napalm in Hindi
- flammable substance
- नेपाम nepām
napalm in Bengali
- নাপাম
napalm in Vietnamese
- flammable substance
- bom napan, napan
Forms of napalm
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | napalms |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | napalms |
| present participle | napalming |
| past participle | napalmed |
| past | napalmed |
Origin of napalm
Formed from na(phthenic) palm(itic) acid, the two original components of the substance.
Words formed from napalm
Questions about napalm
- What does napalm mean?
- Napalm means a highly flammable, viscous substance, designed to stick to the body while burning, used in warfare as an incendiary especially in wooded areas.
- What is napalm in Hindi?
- Napalm in Hindi is नेपाम (nepām). See Napalm meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is napalm?
- Napalm can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce napalm?
- Napalm is pronounced /ˈneɪ.pɑːm/.
- What is the plural of napalm?
- The plural of napalm is napalms.
Words near napalm in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: napalm (page history and authors); napalm (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: en-us-napalm.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-napalm.wav.
Cite this entry: “napalm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/napalm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.