gunpowder
Americannoun
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gunpowders
plural
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an explosive mixture, as of potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal, used in shells and cartridges, in fireworks, for blasting, etc.
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Also called gunpowder tea. a fine variety of green China tea, each leaf of which is rolled into a little ball.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gunpowder
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; see origin at gun 1, powder 1
Vocabulary lists containing gunpowder
East Asia - Middle School
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East Asia - High School
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Civil Engineering
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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.
See Examples For:
Blake had gunpowder residue on his body, which he explained by saying he’d been at target practice.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
The area around Saint-Médard-en-Jalles was home to royal gunpowder works dating to the 17th century reign of Louis XIV, more than a century before the surrounding Landes forest was planted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
It was the law of the blocked road and the fouled well—a pig loose on the highway, a tannery poisoning a shared stream, gunpowder stored where it might ignite and level the block.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
"Jagger Strang did not make a bomb, nor did he intend to - he made some gunpowder," Miskin said.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
They aimed it directly at the thickest part of the fortress wall and packed it full of gunpowder.
From "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster
Danger in Manufacture.—In the case of the old gunpowders, the most dangerous manufacturing operation was incorporation.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 1 "Evangelical Church Conference" to "Fairbairn, Sir William" by Various
The foregoing appliances enabled accurate comparisons to be made at all points between different gunpowders, and to determine the various matters required in the manufacture of the first quality for the various arms of service.
From History of the Confederate Powder Works by George Washington Rains
The adoption by the French government of the comparatively smokeless nitrocellulose explosive of Paul Vieille in 1887 practically put an end to the old forms of gunpowders.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 6 "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad" by Various
The final testing is by firing proofs, as in the case of the old gunpowders.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 4 "Coquelin" to "Costume" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
