ballistic

adjective

bal·​lis·​tic bə-ˈli-stik 

1

: extremely and usually suddenly excited, upset, or angry : wild

He went ballistic when he saw the dent in his car.

and the crowd goes ballistic

2

: of or relating to the science of the motion of projectiles in flight

3

exercise : being or characterized by repeated bouncing

ballistic stretching

4

physics, of an object in motion : behaving like a projectile

But the Bell Labs switch uses such a low current that the few ballistic electrons are a distance of a micrometer or more apart …

—Robert Pool

5

of a material : capable of resisting or stopping bullets or other projectiles

ballistic glass

ballistic nylon

… engineered specifically to be worn under ballistic vests and shirts.

—K. M. Reese

ballistically

bə-ˈli-sti-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

Synonyms

• angry
• indignant
• mad
• furious
• enraged
• outraged
• infuriated
• angered
• rabid
• infuriate

Examples of ballistic in a Sentence

she went ballistic when she discovered her brother reading her e-mail

Recent Examples on the Web

During the early morning hours of July 3, Griffin shot his partner Victoria Truss, 34, and two others, including a Shorewood police officer who was struck in his ballistic vest and treated and released from the hospital later in the day, according to a July 4 MAIT news release. —Claudia Levens, jsonline.com, 8 July 2025

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also was televised in a ballistic vest joining 90 ICE officers in an operation that targeted immigrants with criminal records in New York City but also netted several without criminal histories, according to CBS News, which embedded in the raid. —Daniel Gonzalez, AZCentral.com, 3 July 2025

Prosecutors said surveillance video, ballistic analysis and eyewitness testimony were crucial in securing the two mens' convictions. —Christina Coulter, People.com, 19 June 2025

His ballistic vest showed a scuff mark on its upper right consistent with being struck by an object. —Kathryn Kovalenko, Twin Cities, 18 June 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin ballisticus "relating to the motion of projectiles in flight," from Latin ballista ballista + New Latin -icus -ic entry 1

Note: The Latin word was apparently introduced by the French priest and polymath Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) in Ballistica et acontismologia, a section (with separate title page) of his Cogitata physico-mathematica (Paris, 1644).

First Known Use

1764, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing ballistic

• ballistic missile
• go ballistic

Rhymes for ballistic

• artistic
• autistic
• cladistic
• heuristic
• holistic
• linguistic
• logistic
• monistic
• patristic
• sadistic
• simplistic
• sophistic

Kids Definition

ballistic

adjective

bal·​lis·​tic bə-ˈlis-tik 

: of or relating to ballistics