Explore is to travel through or examine something to learn about it. Explode is to burst apart violently. Explore the caves; the boiler exploded. One letter — an r or a d — and the families give them away: explorer, exploration; explosion, explosive.
The core difference
- explore — to travel through an unfamiliar place; to examine or investigate. Explore the coast, explore the options, the report explores the causes.
- explode — to burst violently; to increase suddenly; to show a belief to be false. The shell exploded, the population exploded, explode a myth.
The tell
Explore makes explorer and exploration. Explode makes explosion and explosive. Say the noun and the verb spells itself. The r is shared with roam; the d with detonate, if you want a hook.
In use
- explore — We spent the morning exploring the old town. The study explores how children learn to read.
- explode — The firework exploded early. House prices exploded in the 1980s.
Common slips
- the bomb explored → the bomb exploded
- we exploded the caves → we explored the caves
Explorers explore; explosions explode.
Where the words come from
Explore is from Latin explorare, "to search out, investigate" — ex- + plorare "to cry out", thought to be the hunters' shout that flushed game. Explode is from Latin explodere, "to drive off by clapping" — ex- + plaudere "to clap": a bad actor was exploded from the stage. The bang came later, in the eighteenth century.
