gunpowder
Americannoun
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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
- gunpowdery adjective
Etymology
Origin of gunpowder
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; 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.
When gunpowder arrived and the emerging nation-states rendered obsolete the old art of war dominated by feudal lords entrenched in their castles.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026
One Tehran local told the BBC that the city had been turned into a "ghost town" with empty streets and a lingering smell of gunpowder.
From BBC • Mar. 6, 2026
Guns have been widely discussed over the last decade, in books from David Silverman’s “Thundersticks,” on colonial America, to David Cressy’s “Saltpeter,” on gunpowder, to Priya Satia’s “Empire of Guns,” on the Industrial Revolution.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025
But some judges and state lawyers said the history shows that when new dangers arose — including stored gunpowder, dynamite and machine guns — new restrictions were written into law.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 2, 2025
He was a powder monkey, which meant it was his job to rush heavy bags of explosive gunpowder to the men loading the cannons.
From I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 by Lauren Tarshis
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.
