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airburst

American  
[air-burst] / ˈɛərˌbɜrst /

noun

  1. the explosion of a bomb or shell in midair.


airburst British  
/ ˈɛəˌbɜːst /

noun

  1. the explosion of a bomb, shell, etc, in the air

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of airburst

First recorded in 1915–20; air 1 + burst

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.

It shows the walls and ground covered by small tightly-packed impact marks which match the spread of fragments from an airburst warhead like a PrSM, according to expert analysis.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2026

Boslough notes that the same pattern would likely occur if a similar airburst happened over New Mexico.

From Science Daily • Oct. 31, 2025

That leaves his group where it was before the discovery of Hiawatha: arguing the Younger Dryas trigger was an airburst rather than a body slamming into the ground.

From Science Magazine • Mar. 8, 2022

The blast occurred roughly 16 miles above the ocean, creating a high-altitude airburst with perhaps 40 percent of the energy released by the destructive February 2013 meteor over Chelyabinsk, Russia.

From Scientific American • Mar. 21, 2019

A Chelyabinsk-like airburst occurs somewhere on Earth on average every 50 years, usually over the oceans.

From Nature

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