shrapnel
/ˈʃɹæpnəl/
shrapnel noun: an anti-personnel artillery shell used in World War I which carries a large number of individual bullets or balls close to the target and then ejects them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually.
Noun
shrapnel (usually uncountable, plural shrapnels)
- An anti-personnel artillery shell used in World War I which carries a large number of individual bullets or balls close to the target and then ejects them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually.
- The bullets or balls from the aforementioned type of artillery shell.
- Any shot, fragments, or debris thrown out by an exploding shell, bomb, or landmine.
- Debris.
- The dog ate my sandwich, and there was shrapnel all over the place from him tearing open the bag.
- Loose change.
- I was waiting in the queue, looking at the board / Wondering whether to have a burger or chips / Or what the shrapnel in my back pocket could afford2004, “Fit But You Know It”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), A Grand Don't Come For Free, performed by The Streets
Proper noun capitalized: Shrapnel
Shrapnel (plural Shrapnels)
- A surname
shrapnel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam
shrapnel in Hindi
- artillery shell
- गंजगोला gañjgolā
shrapnel in Tamil
- தெறிகுண்டு, சிதறுகுண்டு, வெடிகுண்டுச் சிதறல், தெறிதுண்டு
shrapnel in Telugu
- ష్రాప్నెల్, ష్రాప్నల్, ష్రాప్నేల్
shrapnel in Malayalam
- ഷ്രാപ്നൽ, ഷ്രാപ്നെൽ
More languagesFewer languages
- shrapnel in Kannada
- ಚದರುಗುಂಡು
- shrapnel in Punjabi
- ਸ਼੍ਰਾਪਨਲ, ਸ਼੍ਰਪਨਲ, ਸ਼੍ਰਪਨੇਲ
- shrapnel in Odia
- ଶ୍ରାପ୍ପେଲ, ଶ୍ରାପ୍ପନେଲ
- shrapnel in Nepali
- श्रापनेल, श्रापेल, श्राप्पेनल
- shrapnel in Arabic
- شَظَايَا šaẓāyā
- shrapnel in Malay
- serpihan peluru, serpihan bom
- shrapnel in Thai
- สะเก็ด sà-gèt, สะเก็ดระเบิด, ลูกแตก
- shrapnel in Vietnamese
- trái phá, đạn trái phá
Examples of shrapnel in a sentence
- Pressure built beneath the plug in the caldera, eventually resulting in a catastrophic explosion of pyroclastic shrapnel and ash.
- While here last night we caught a packet, and some shrapnel came into our house here.
- Inside the shrapnel shell was an iron bar with a flattened, broad nose.
Forms of shrapnel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | shrapnels |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Shrapnels |
Origin of shrapnel
From Shrapnel. Named after British army officer Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842) who invented an anti-personnel shell that transported a large number of bullets to the target before releasing them, at a far greater distance than rifles could fire the bullets individually. The surname is likely a metathesized form of Charbonnel, a diminutive of Old French charbon (“charcoal”) in reference to hair color, complexion, or the like.
From French Charbonnel, from charbon (“coal, charcoal”).
Words formed from shrapnel
Words that rhyme with shrapnel
Questions about shrapnel
- What does shrapnel mean?
- Shrapnel means an anti-personnel artillery shell used in World War I which carries a large number of individual bullets or balls close to the target and then ejects them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually.
- What is shrapnel in Hindi?
- Shrapnel in Hindi is गंजगोला (gañjgolā). See Shrapnel meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is shrapnel?
- Shrapnel can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce shrapnel?
- Shrapnel is pronounced /ˈʃɹæpnəl/.
- What is the plural of shrapnel?
- The plural of shrapnel is shrapnels.
Words near shrapnel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shrapnel (page history and authors); Shrapnel (page history and authors); shrapnel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shrapnel (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shrapnel (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shrapnel (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); shrapnel (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shrapnel (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); shrapnel (Nepali, 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: En-au-shrapnel.ogg.
Cite this entry: “shrapnel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shrapnel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.