1
as in volcano
a potentially explosive place or situation
that troubled region remains one of the world's most dangerous flash points
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2
as in crisis
a time or state of affairs requiring prompt or decisive action
tensions between the two longtime adversaries were at a flash point
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Examples of flash point in a Sentence
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Recent Examples on the Web
The Berlin crisis shows just how dangerous such flash points can be in a global competition between two large nuclear powers.
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Dmitri Alperovitch, Foreign Affairs, 15 May 2024
The enhanced feature is a flash point in the escalating tensions between merchants and the card networks setting the fees for payment processing.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 20 Sep. 2024
Asia has no shortage of flash points, notably over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
—Susannah Patton, Foreign Affairs, 13 Sep. 2024
One flash point was a video that showed a woman collapsing amid a crowd of protesters.
—Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for flash point 
Dmitri Alperovitch, Foreign Affairs, 15 May 2024
The enhanced feature is a flash point in the escalating tensions between merchants and the card networks setting the fees for payment processing.
—Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 20 Sep. 2024
Asia has no shortage of flash points, notably over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
—Susannah Patton, Foreign Affairs, 13 Sep. 2024
One flash point was a video that showed a woman collapsing amid a crowd of protesters.
—Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for flash point
Recent Examples of Synonyms for flash point
Noun
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Rising up in the distance was the majestic El Misti, a dormant volcano with a crater hollowed out by the power of previous explosions.Monisha Rajesh, Travel + Leisure, 20 Oct. 2024
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That rocky seafloor could provide energy and chemicals through underwater volcanoes that could make Europa’s ocean habitable.Mike Sori, Discover Magazine, 18 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Despite their 24/7 availability, chatbots still struggle to accurately identify crisis situations.Anisha Sircar, Forbes, 28 Oct. 2024
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The decade-long project found that more than one in three tree species are threatened with extinction, underscoring the scale of the crisis facing our planet’s ecosystems.Rachel Ramirez, CNN, 28 Oct. 2024
Noun
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The ticking sound in capitals around the world is a demographic time bomb – of a sort unimaginable only a couple of generations ago.Ned Temko, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Oct. 2024
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Is a crisis inevitable? DC: One thing that is perhaps comforting is that there’s no ticking time bomb.Andy Mills, Quartz, 16 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Perhaps ongoing quiet tensions have reached a boiling point.Sonal Jain, Forbes, 22 Oct. 2024
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The debate over whether electric vehicle incentives are creating good-paying jobs is reaching a boiling point in some of the country's tightest races in a key battleground state.Daniel Moore, Axios, 15 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Delimitros said one of the truck’s side view mirrors struck her in the head, causing minor injuries.David Hernandez, sandiegouniontribune.com, 19 July 2017
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There's always one shot that leaves a golfer shaking his or her head.Mike Hutton, Post-Tribune, 19 July 2017
Noun
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But the plot strains credulity to the breaking point.Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 27 Oct. 2024
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Here’s a closer look at how 23andMe reached this breaking point.Bruce Gil, Quartz, 24 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Let the season breathe more and understand that in crunch time — at the end of halves and games — Williams has been pretty good.Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune, 30 Oct. 2024
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While both parties enter crunch time in what has been deemed by some to be one of the closest elections in the nation’s history, Musk has been becoming all the more of an oversized figure in the race.Chloe Berger, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Flash point.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flash%20point. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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