kaboom

See also: ka-boom

English

Alternative forms

• kerboom (UK)

Etymology

From ka- +‎ boom. Compare kerboom. Consider Italian tapum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈbuːm/
• Rhymes: -uːm

Noun

kaboom (plural kabooms)

1. The sound of an explosion, typically seen in comic strips or heard in a light-hearted conversation.
2. An explosion itself.

Translations

sound of explosion

• Finnish: jysäys, jytky (fi), jyrähdys (fi)
• Hungarian: bumm (hu)
• Indonesian: jeder (id), duar
• Japanese: ドカン (dokan), ドカーン (dokān), ドッカン (dokkan)
• Polish: łubudu
• Yoruba: gbàù

Interjection

kaboom

1. (mimesis) An explosion; the word is typically seen in comic strips or heard in a light-hearted conversation.

Translations

sound of an explosion

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 砰 (zh) (pēng), 劈裡啪啦 / 劈里啪啦 (zh) (pīlǐpālā), 轟隆 / 轰隆 (zh) (hōnglóng)

• Dutch: kaboem
• Finnish: jytym
• Greek: καμπούμ (kampoúm)
• Hungarian: bumm (hu)
• Japanese: ボーン (ja) (bōn)
• Persian: بووم (bûm)
• Portuguese: cabum (pt), bum (pt), pum (pt)
• Russian: ба-ба́х (ba-báx) / баба́х (ru) (babáx), бах (ru) (bax), бум (ru) (bum), трах (ru) (trax), бух (ru) (bux), бац (ru) (bac)
• Thai: ตูม (th) (dtoom)

Verb

kaboom (third-person singular simple present kabooms, present participle kabooming, simple past and past participle kaboomed)

1. (ambitransitive, informal) To make such a sound (at something); to explode.
   • 2006, Jeff Bukantz, “Better Than Medals”, in Closing the Distance: Chasing a Father’s Olympic Fencing Legacy, Boston, Mass.: Acanthus Publishing, →ISBN, page 99:

     Hearing that magic word, Spivak exploded, “I don’t have to listen to this shit!” and kaboomed the receiver in my ear.

   • 2007, W[illiam] S[imone] Di Piero, “Frankie’s Birthday Party”, in Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 121:

     The Steel Pier’s Diving Horse kaboomed the water tank.

   • 2008, Cindy Dees, chapter 16, in The Medusa Affair (Mills & Boon Intrigue), Richmond, London: Mills & Boon, →ISBN, page 233:

     And then a second explosion kaboomed. The ground beneath their feet shook and an even bigger rock fall littered the beach a few feet from them.

   • 2013, Michael Alexiades, “McManus”, in Night Harvest: A Novel, Nashville, Tenn.; New York, N.Y.: Turner Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 343:

     With the tunnel now open to the outside air, the roar of the Nor’easter outside kaboomed.

   • 2016, Dawn McNiff, chapter 26, in How Not to Be Weird, London: Piccadilly Press, →ISBN, page 168:

     On my way out I kaboomed the school for luck. And touched lots of wood – both the gate and the apple tree.

   • 2021 October 27, Jayson Stark, “Charlie Morton’s heroics and Jorge Soler’s history-making home run — Jayson Stark’s Weird and Wild”, in The Athletic‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 June 2024:

     The first swing of this World Series went kabooming into the Crawford Boxes … a pitcher who nearly just no-hit the Red Sox had one of the worst Game 1 starts in World Series history … and everybody got a hit for the Braves except Chipper Jones.

Descendants

• → Dutch: kaboem (possibly)

Anagrams

• Maboko

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English kaboom. Displaced native onomatopoeia tapum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈbum/
• Rhymes: -um

Interjection

kaboom

1. kaboom (the sound of a great explosion)