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detonate

[det-n-eyt] / ˈdɛt nˌeɪt /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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An attempt to detonate or diffuse the bomb failed, so Officer Brian Murray and three others were lowered into the crater.

From Slate Jul. 7, 2026

He said residents in towns south of Tyre left after hearing reports in the Lebanese media that Israel might detonate nearby.

From Barron's Jun. 28, 2026

“Oil spikes don’t cause recessions alone — they detonate existing fragilities,” the Rapidan team said.

From MarketWatch May 22, 2026

Commander Fox explains that mines generally fall into two categories: contact mines, which detonate when struck, and influence mines, which explode when sensors detect changes in sound, pressure or magnetism.

From BBC Jan. 30, 2026

The realizations continued to detonate in my brain like atomic bombs going off, one after another.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

When roughly a mile from its target, it uses artificial intelligence to lock onto the target and detonates nearby, according to its users.

From The Wall Street Journal May 13, 2026

In these events, an incoming object such as a comet detonates above the ground, releasing intense heat and shockwaves that reach Earth's surface.

From Science Daily Dec. 19, 2025

If Wilder detonates early and finishes Herndon quicker than Torrez did, expect someone somewhere to shout: "He's back!"

From BBC Jun. 27, 2025

He detonates narrative warfare wherever he goes, so it’s difficult to decipher what is planted to create spectacle to feed the mangy cult and what is a true trash fire of a human.

From Salon Mar. 12, 2024

Halftime Right after you glance at April waving from the bleachers, your stomach detonates: KABOOM! and you lose it right there behind the bench in Pernell’s gym bag.

From "Booked" by Kwame Alexander

The Apache was scanning the night sky for Iranian threats to commercial ships below shortly after 1 a.m. local time on Tuesday when the drone detonated directly in front of it, U.S. officials said.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 13, 2026

Councillor Sally Haydon, cabinet member for community safety, said 450 tonnes of sand had been transported to the site to place around the bomb before it was detonated.

From BBC May 1, 2026

Instead, the round detonated prematurely at 453 meters, or about 1,486 feet, in the air, around 3,300 feet from its firing location, according to the report.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 16, 2026

"They poisoned us," Hinamoeura Cross, a 37-year-old Tahitian parliamentarian who was aged seven when France detonated its last nuclear explosion near her home in French Polynesia in 1996.

From Barron's Jan. 22, 2026

On the automobile bridge, Mike Bogo, the three-hundred-pound Poughkeepsie barkeep in charge of setting off explosives to signal the lane number of the winner, detonated five bombs, for Cornell.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

The drone, designed by Perennial Autonomy, a company backed by former Google CEO and billionaire Eric Schmidt using Ukrainian engineers, destroys other drones by detonating close by and has proven popular in Ukraine.

From The Wall Street Journal May 13, 2026

If your goal is to save money on taxes, detonating the tax torpedo is not ideal.

From MarketWatch May 8, 2026

The setting needn’t be explicitly Norway, but the stultifying strictures of this middle-class world must be in place for Ibsen’s vision to have its detonating effect.

From Los Angeles Times Feb. 25, 2026

Several unexploded bombs dating back to past wars have been discovered in Serbia in recent years, all of which were safely removed without detonating.

From Barron's Dec. 28, 2025

As I was preparing for this book, I wrote an article for The Daily Telegraph, hoping to elicit a few punctuation horror stories, and it was like detonating a dam.

From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Author




Vocabulary lists containing detonate


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