1
as in volcanoes
a potentially explosive place or situation
officials sought to calm the situation, which had grown into a tinderbox
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2
as in crises
a time or state of affairs requiring prompt or decisive action
while the country's prime minister was meeting with the U.S. president, a political tinderbox was igniting at home
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Recent Examples of tinderboxes
The Industrial Revolution, supercharged by the Civil War, transformed Northeastern cities into denser and denser wooden tinderboxes filled with tons of humans more than capable of accidentally generating sparks.
—
Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2026
Unlike natural thinning, large fire-resilient trees are typically high-graded for felling in Jackson, creating tinderboxes of 300 to 500 mostly juvenile trees per acre.
—John P. O’Brien, Mercury News, 13 Sep. 2025
Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2026
Unlike natural thinning, large fire-resilient trees are typically high-graded for felling in Jackson, creating tinderboxes of 300 to 500 mostly juvenile trees per acre.
—John P. O’Brien, Mercury News, 13 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tinderboxes
Noun
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The idea was controversial, because volcanoes were always thought to act independently, tapping their own supplies of molten, eruptible rock.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
27 Mar. 2026
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Filmmaker Sara Dosa is going from the molten to the melting, from fiery volcanoes to dissolving glaciers.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
20 Mar. 2026
Noun
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For some, the war in Iran has raised urgent questions about how much attention the US can sustain if multiple crises unfold at once.—
Wayne Chang,
CNN Money,
7 Apr. 2026
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But after economic crises, Orbán came to power by promising prosperity to the rich and poor, said Gábor Scheiring, a former Hungarian lawmaker now teaching at Georgetown University in Qatar.—
SAM McNEIL,
Arkansas Online,
7 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Creative differences between Levinson and HBO over where to go from this existential crossroads delayed the season even further.—
Alison Herman,
Variety,
8 Apr. 2026
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Surely, every generation faces this devastating crossroads of actual adulthood.—
Annah Feinberg,
New Yorker,
7 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tinderboxes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tinderboxes. Accessed 9 Apr. 2026.
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