Cordite is an explosive. It is the stuff inside many bullets and some bombs that burns very fast and pushes the shot out of the gun. It was made into long, thin sticks that looked like cords, and that is why it got this name. Compared with old black gunpowder, it makes much less smoke, which is why armies wanted it. You will not hear the word in a kitchen or in classroom chat. It lives in war stories, history books, and writing about guns, especially British ones from the late nineteenth century and the two world wars. Writers sometimes mention the smell of cordite after a gun has been fired. You usually do not count it: people say cordite, not a cordite, unless they mean one particular kind.

無煙火藥（特指做成細長條、用在子彈或炸彈裡的那一種）