thermobaric

adjective

ther·​mo·​bar·​ic ˌthər-mə-ˈbär-ik 

-ˈber-ik,

-ˈba-rik

of a weapon

: containing a charge of fuel designed to ignite and combine with oxygen present in the atmosphere to produce a prolonged explosion

Rather than fight their way into such caverns, U.S. forces have preferred to drop specialized … weapons, including thermobaric bombs that emit clouds of powdered fuel and ignite them, sending waves of heat and pressure through caverns and depleting the oxygen inside.

—Peter Baker and Pamela Constable

Examples of thermobaric in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This kind of bomb is, in a sense, the very opposite of a flimsy thermobaric bomb. —David Axe, Forbes.com, 2 Apr. 2025

On the night of February 28, Ukraine's Defense Forces destroyed a thermobaric munitions storage near Selydove, Donetsk region. —Maya Mehrara, Newsweek, 28 Feb. 2025

But the shop turned out other payloads, including thermobaric bombs, high-explosive charges for flying into bunkers and anti-personnel charges, some of which resembled the improvisations of nonstate actors. —C.j. Chivers Robert Fass Krish Seenivasan Steven Szczesniak, New York Times, 31 Dec. 2024

Moscow added thermobaric warheads to the kamikaze drones, which were also equipped with Russian Kometa navigation units and Chinese control boards. —Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 23 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Russian termobaricheskiy, from termo- thermo- + -baricheskiy, as in izobaricheskiy isobaric

First Known Use

1998, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for thermobaric

• isobaric
• amharic
• barbaric
• pindaric
• barrack