Scientists have recently found that the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up. This effect is attributed to the presence of dark energy.
First recorded in 1950–55
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The big bang theory may have triumphed among most cosmologists, but the persistence of unanswered questions—what came before that explosive moment? could our universe be one of many?—leaves plenty of room for speculation and dissent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
When we first pitched the show to Casey Bloys and the creative team at HBO, we said it would be “glacially slow, with no big bang theory of dramatics.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2025
He says the big bang theory is a “paradigm-smashing concept to end all paradigm-smashing concepts” because it demonstrates that the universe had a beginning.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 13, 2021
After all, in the 1960s physicists confirmed the big bang theory and took steps toward a unified theory of all of nature’s forces, while biologists deciphered the genetic code.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 7, 2019
For a time, big bang theory and steady-state theory lived side by side, alternatives that astronomers chose between depending on their philosophy.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
That could include discussions on birth control, evolution or the big-bang theory.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 22, 2022
Only in the 20th century did readers recognize its uncanny anticipations of relativity and the big-bang theory.
From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2021
Other scientific evidence, grounded in empirical observations, supports the big-bang theory.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
Hubble’s observation forms the basis of the big-bang theory.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2017
The big-bang theory was born Yet scientists were aware that the big-bang theory suffered from a significant shortcoming.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
The Big Bang theory remains the prevailing explanation, yet many questions persist -- especially about what might have occurred before that explosive beginning.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2025
Together, Narlikar and Hoyle laid the groundwork for a revolutionary alternative to the popular Big Bang theory.
From BBC ● May 23, 2025
Arno A. Penzias, whose astronomical probes yielded incontrovertible evidence of a dynamic, evolving universe with a clear point of origin, confirming what became known as the Big Bang theory, died on Monday in San Francisco.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
Later astronomer Edward Hubble made discoveries here that led to the Big Bang theory.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2024
According to the Big Bang theory, the universe came into being in one single moment—a cosmic cataclysm that gave birth to black holes, brown dwarfs, matter and dark matter, energy and dark energy.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
