atomic age

American  

noun

1. the period in history initiated by the first use of the atomic bomb and characterized by atomic energy as a military, political, and industrial factor.

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atomic age British  

noun

1. the current historical period, initiated by the development of the first atomic bomb towards the end of World War II and now marked by a balance of power between nations possessing the hydrogen bomb and the use of nuclear power as a source of energy

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Etymology

Origin of atomic age

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

The atomic age made it potentially life-ending for humanity.

From The Wall Street Journal

That’s been our curse since the dawn of the Atomic Age, now compounded in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

From Los Angeles Times

Set on Earth 828, an alternate universe that borrows our own Atomic Age decor, it doesn’t just look old, it moves old.

From Los Angeles Times

The current crisis coincides with the 80th anniversary of the Trinity Test, the first detonation of an atomic weapon that would soon obliterate the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and so inaugurate the atomic age.

From Salon

In popular culture and historical scholarship, his legacy is often framed as that of a tragic figure: The reluctant architect of the atomic age, an idealist drawn into the ethically fraught task of creating a weapon of mass destruction compelled by the perceived exigencies of an existential war.

From Salon