This week's theme
Words from chemistry

This week's words
sulfurous
catalyst
fulminate
acidic
brimstone

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(FUHL-muh-nayt, FOOL-, -mih-)

MEANING:

noun: An explosive salt of fulminic acid.
verb tr., intr.: 1. To explode or to cause to explode. 2. To issue denunciations.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin fulminare (to strike with lightning), from fulmen (lightning), from fulgere (to shine). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhel- (to shine or burn), which is also the source of blaze, blank, blond, bleach, blanket, flame, refulgent, and effulgent. Earliest documented use: 1500.

USAGE:

"She would fulminate honestly against anything she didn't like."
Robert Thirkell; Conflict; Bloomsbury; 2010.

"It was plain to see that her temper was delicately adjusted on a fulminate of mercury fuse."
L. Ron Hubbard; The Chee-Chalker; Galaxy Press; 2008.

See more usage examples of fulminate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: