Definition of "plosive" [plosive]

• Of, relating to, or being a speech sound produced by complete closure of the oral passage and subsequent release accompanied by a burst of air, as in the sound (p) in pit or (d) in dog. (adjective)
• A plosive speech sound. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Yes, it's about a complete cessation of airflow with a sudden release -- a 'plosive' -- rather than a restriction causing 'fricative' turbulence."
• "On the Cosmos series he said the word "billion" with a pronounced, plosive "b" which many took to be a speech defect."
• "Most of the time, we can differentiate between a “b” and a “p” sound over the phone, even though the audio cues that make the difference between these voiced on unvoiced plosive consonants live in the higher frequencies that are lost over phone circuits."