A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand, but can also refer to projectiles shot out of grenade launchers. Generally, a grenade consists of an explosive charge, a detonating mechanism, and a firing pin inside the grenade to trigger the detonating mechanism. Once the soldier throws the grenade, the safety lever releases, the striker throws the safety lever away from the grenade body as it rotates to detonate the primer. The primer explodes and ignites the fuze (sometimes called the delay element). The fuze burns down to the detonator, which explodes the main charge.

There are several types of grenades like the fragmentation (frag), high explosive (HE) concussion and smoke grenades.

Fragmentation grenades are probably the most common in modern armies. They are designed to disperse shrapnel on detonation. The body is generally made of a hard synthetic material or steel, which will provide limited fragmentation through sharding and splintering, though in modern grenades a pre-formed fragmentation matrix inside the grenade is commonly used. The pre-formed fragmentation may be spherical, cuboid, wire or notched wire. Most anti-personnel (AP) grenades are designed to detonate either after a time delay or on impact.[1] When the word grenade is used colloquially, it is generally assumed to refer to a fragmentation grenade. Stick grenades have a long handle attached to the grenade directly, providing leverage for longer throwing distance, at the cost of additional weight and length. The term stick grenade commonly refers to the German Stielhandgranate style stick grenade introduced in 1915 and developed throughout World War I. A friction igniter was used; this method was uncommon in other countries but widely used for German grenades.

Grenades are typically round-shaped with a pineapple or baseball-style design, or an explosive charge on a handle which is referred to as a stick grenade. The stick grenade design has been considered obsolete since World War II and the Cold War period. They saw extensive use in World War I and in World War II. The WWI and WWII era stick grenade was often used in trench and built-up (urban and small scale) warfare by the Central Powers and Nazi Germany, while the Triple Entente and Allied powers typically used some improvised earlier grenades or round-shaped fragmentation grenades. Source: WIKIPEDIA