thermonuclear
pronunciation
How to pronounce thermonuclear in British English:
UK [ˌθɜ:məʊˈnju:kliə(r)]
How to pronounce thermonuclear in American English:
US [ˌθɜrmoʊˈnukliə(r)]
-
- Adjective:
- using nuclear weapons based on fusion as distinguished from fission
Word Origin
- thermonuclear (adj.)
- 1938 with reference to stars, 1953 of weapons (technically only to describe the hydrogen bomb), from thermo- + nuclear.
Example
- 1. It is also full of people - people with thermonuclear bombs .
- 2. The real holy grail for an interstellar mission will be breakthroughs in our ability to harness thermonuclear energy -- namely fusion .
- 3. They would have been almost pure hydrogen -- the primary ingredient of thermonuclear fusion , which makes a star shine .
- 4. Hydrogen , or thermonuclear bombs , work in almost the opposite way to atomic bombs .
- 5. Thermonuclear weapons are at least an order of magnitude more destructive than the first-generation fission weapon dropped on hiroshima on august 6 , 1945 .