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RADIOACTIVE DECAY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The spontaneous disintegration of a radioactive substance along with the emission of ionizing radiation
Synonyms:
decay; disintegration; radioactive decay
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("radioactive decay" is a kind of...):
nuclear reaction ((physics) a process that alters the energy or structure or composition of atomic nuclei)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "radioactive decay"):
alpha decay (radioactive decay of an atomic nucleus that is accompanied by the emission of an alpha particle)
beta decay (radioactive decay of an atomic nucleus that is accompanied by the emission of a beta particle)
