thermonuclear

[ thur-moh-noo-klee-er, -nyoo-or, by metathesis, -kyuh-ler ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or involving a thermonuclear reaction:

   thermonuclear power.

thermonuclear

/ ˌθɜːməʊˈnjuːklɪə /

adjective

1. involving nuclear fusion

   a thermonuclear reaction

   thermonuclear energy

2. involving thermonuclear weapons

   a thermonuclear war

thermonuclear

/ thûr′mō-no̅o̅′klē-ər /

1. Relating to the fusion of atomic nuclei at high temperatures or to the energy produced in this way.
2. Relating to weapons based on nuclear fusion, especially as distinguished from those based on nuclear fission.

thermonuclear

1. A term referring to devices that use nuclear fusion , the fusion of atomic nuclei , to produce energy at very high temperatures. ( See hydrogen bomb .)

Pronunciation Note

See nuclear.

Word History and Origins

Origin of thermonuclear¹

First recorded in 1935–40; thermo- + nuclear

Example Sentences

On January 27, 1996, France conducted Xouthos, its 210th and final live nuclear test, detonating a thermonuclear warhead beneath the Fangataufa lagoon in the southern Pacific Ocean.

From Popular-Science

The sun roils with heat as thermonuclear reactions in its center produce high amounts of energy.

From Popular-Science

Climate change threatens human lives and livelihoods at a scale perhaps unmatched by any other issue short of global thermonuclear war, and governments haven’t come anywhere close to adequately addressing it despite decades of efforts.

From Time

The United States has allocated over $400 million for research in controlled thermonuclear reactors to date and the USSR more than twice that amount.

From MIT Technology Review

A fusion reactor, or a fusion power plant or thermonuclear reactor, is a device that scientists can use to create electrical power from the energy released in a nuclear fusion reaction.

From Popular-Science

If that strikes us as tiresome and tedious, we might as well just hang it up and trigger some global thermonuclear war.

From The Daily Beast

There need to be perfect conditions for the thermonuclear reaction to take place.

From The Daily Beast

Any deal is good in that it averts thermonuclear economic collapse.

From The Daily Beast

The daily brief said nothing about widespread plutonium dispersal or about the lost thermonuclear bomb.

From The Daily Beast

A second group worked to locate the lost thermonuclear bomb, called a “broken arrow” in Defense Department terms.

From The Daily Beast

Larch put off another entertainment of small stuff, with a fifty megaton thermonuclear, viewscreen-piloted, among them.

From Project Gutenberg

In that year, too, tests were made at Eniwetok preliminary to the detonation of the first thermonuclear device.

From Project Gutenberg

Project Sedan, an underground thermonuclear detonation in 1962, established conditions for one such study.

From Project Gutenberg

Thermonuclear weapons, complemented over time by strong conventional forces, threatened societal damage to Russia.

From Project Gutenberg

It also included immersion in technology and systems from thermonuclear weapons to advanced weapons software.

From Project Gutenberg