How to Use detonation in a Sentence

detonation

noun
  • The tank was near the detonation cord at the time the shell was launched.
    — Keir Simmons, NBC News, 10 Jan. 2024
  • Still, the detonation was a sight that stayed with Falke the rest of his life.
    — Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express-News, 15 Jan. 2026
  • And the nest appears to have been half blown open, as if ripped by a detonation that been paused mid-blast.
    — New York Times, 18 Feb. 2021
  • Police said the detonation did not pose a risk to the public.
    — Rae Johnson, The Courier-Journal, 2 Aug. 2023
  • That was a pretty good size of pipe that was propelled from the detonation through the fence.
    — CBS News, 20 Oct. 2020
  • The noise isn’t the detonation of a bomb dropped by an Israeli jet.
    — Anna Schecter, NBC News, 21 Nov. 2023
  • The team to solve the puzzle and set off their detonation station fastest, wins.
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 30 Sep. 2021
  • And the fatal effects of the bombs didn’t end with their detonation.
    — Donna Sarkar, Discover Magazine, 9 Mar. 2022
  • Monday’s detonation against the Bucks seemed to come out of nowhere.
    — Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 11 May 2021
  • The detonation of an 82mm mortar shell down in the city, or on our hill, or on the next one.
    — Krista Stevens, Longreads, 7 Dec. 2022
  • One of them takes off his leather jacket to reveal a detonation device strapped to his back.
    — Nick Romano, EW.com, 22 Feb. 2021
  • The detonation instantly took off both his legs above the knee and one of his arms above the elbow.
    — Thomas Bostick, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2022
  • Putting trash in the trash chute sounded like the detonation of a bomb, according to the suit.
    — Katherine Clarke, WSJ, 22 Dec. 2021
  • What about the effects on the ground of a nuclear detonation far above?
    — Joshua Keating, Vox, 12 Apr. 2022
  • The thunder from the bomb’s detonation seemed to ricochet and linger in the desert.
    — Nicholas W. Zamiska, Washington Post, 25 June 2024
  • Five were core-collapsing massive stars, and five were the detonation of white dwarfs.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 19 Aug. 2025
  • Debris would likely fall from the sky a short time after detonation.
    — Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 28 Oct. 2025
  • Most artillery shells are sent downrange by the detonation of a propellant charge in the breech of the gun.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 12 Aug. 2022
  • The notch carved out of the island next to the green clump of vegetation is the crater carved out by the detonation.
    — Discover Magazine, 10 June 2015
  • Shocks from the detonation could reportedly be felt across the city.
    — Tyler Van Dyke, Washington Examiner, 13 Oct. 2020
  • The detonation was heard as far away as City Heights in San Diego.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Sep. 2022
  • The detonation broke the ship's rudder, disabling the ship and engulfing it in flames.
    — Melina Khan, USA Today, 16 July 2025
  • Much of it is in black and white, treating the detonation of the first atomic bomb as the event that unleashed true evil into the world.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 16 Jan. 2025
  • The first detonations of fireworks echoed through the neighborhood after a long, tense wait.
    — Constant Méheut, BostonGlobe.com, 1 July 2023
  • Visitors can pick the target location, the weapon and type of detonation—air or on the ground.
    — Time, 27 Sep. 2022
  • Traffic cameras captured both the impact and detonation of the weapon, which is likely a bomb.
    — Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 22 Apr. 2023
  • There have been no above-ground nuclear detonations in the world since 1980.
    — Alan Murray, Fortune, 22 Sep. 2017
  • Its temperature stays in the low 200s and there is no sign of detonation.
    — Csaba Csere, Car and Driver, 16 June 2023
  • Hayabusa will move to the far side of the asteroid until the detonation happens roughly half an hour later.
    — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 4 Apr. 2019
  • And that all is also being blasted up into the atmosphere, by the force of the detonation.
    — Matt Simon, WIRED, 27 Nov. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'detonation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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