- 1easily able or likely to explode an explosive device (= a bomb) an explosive mixture of chemicals Hydrogen is highly explosive.
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- 2likely to cause violence or strong feelings of anger or hatred a potentially explosive situation one of the most explosive issues of our time
- 3often having sudden violent or angry feelings an explosive temper
- 4increasing suddenly and rapidly the explosive growth of the export market
- 5(of a sound) sudden and loud There was an explosive crash and then everything fell silent.
adverb The company has grown explosively over the last two years. explode verbexplosion nounexplosive adjective noununexploded adjectiveSee explosive in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
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