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PLUTONIUM BOMB
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A nuclear weapon in which enormous energy is released by nuclear fission (splitting the nuclei of a heavy element like uranium 235 or plutonium 239)
Synonyms:
A-bomb; atom bomb; atomic bomb; fission bomb; plutonium bomb
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("plutonium bomb" is a kind of...):
bomb (an explosive device fused to explode under specific conditions)
atomic weapon; nuclear weapon (a weapon of mass destruction whose explosive power derives from a nuclear reaction)
Meronyms (parts of "plutonium bomb"):
plutonium pit; plutonium trigger (a steel or beryllium sphere containing plutonium 239 that triggers nuclear fission when compressed by explosives)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plutonium bomb"):
clean bomb (an atom bomb leaving little or no radioactive contamination)
dirty bomb (an atom bomb that leaves considerable radioactive contamination)
neutron bomb (atom bomb that produces lethal neutrons with less blast)