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
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.
They likened AI’s potential to transform the military to gunpowder, a technology invented in China but more effectively weaponized, many in China believe, by others.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 25, 2026
Authorities vowed to stabilize investment with more fiscal gunpowder from the central government, according to the Xinhua readout of the gathering.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 11, 2025
At the top of the hill is a stone turret, the eponymous powder house, where the British army arrived in 1774 to seize a stock of gunpowder.
From Slate • Mar. 27, 2025
Hernández got his start as a teenager, playing the piano with La Conquistadora, Ray Barretto and Celia Cruz, and the band’s ninth album, “Swing Forever,” brims with electricity and gunpowder.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2024
Nobody had known that two hundred and sixty redcoats were getting into boats, slipping off up the Mystic, seizing Yankee gunpowder, and rowing it back to Castle Island for themselves.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
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.
