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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Darwin suspected that atolls formed when coral grew around volcanoes, creating a ring that remained when the volcano subsided.
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The neighborhood/area The Icelandic Highlands are an incredibly special part of the country—uninhabited and covered with sprawling mountains and ancient volcanoes.
Noun
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Three crises — the 1987 crash, the dot‑com bubble and the global financial crisis — forced Greenspan to confront the limits of that worldview, lessons that continue to shape how economists think about market behavior today.
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These duos can be dressed up or down with ease and minimize clothing crises.
Noun
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Inventory levels at Cushing, Oklahoma, the pipeline crossroads of the United States, fell just below 19 million barrels last week, the lowest since August 2014.
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On the cusp of the 250th anniversary of its founding, the United States of America is at a crossroads.
Cite this Entry
“Tinderboxes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tinderboxes. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.
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