explosives
- 1Plural of explosive.
Engineers placed the explosives carefully along the base of the old bridge.
Customs officers are trained to detect explosives in checked luggage.
Note
Only the noun takes this ending. The adjective explosive never does, so explosives always names things rather than describing them. Usually those things are charges and blasting substances, the kind engineers lay and customs officers search for. Older writing on speech sounds may use the word differently: there, explosives were the consonants now called plosives. That usage is dated, worth recognizing but not copying.
explosives is a form of explosive
explosive, noun: A substance capable of exploding, especially one made for blasting or demolition. Full entry
- Forms
- explosiveexplosives plural
- Spelling
- explosive → explosives: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with explosives, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.