ionizing radiation

American

noun

Physics.

any radiation, as a stream of alpha particles or x-rays, that produces ionization as it passes through a medium.

ionizing radiation British

noun

electromagnetic or corpuscular radiation that is able to cause ionization

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of ionizing radiation

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

ionizing radiation

The researchers exposed fruit fly larvae to ionizing radiation, but this time they used modern genetic tools to follow the regeneration of epithelial tissue in far greater detail.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026

MRI did what X-rays couldn't do: See soft tissue without using ionizing radiation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

Portable X-ray equipment works in the same way as the big, fixed machines in radiology departments in hospitals - the image is created by a targeted burst of ionizing radiation.

From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2024

Tritium is a β-radiation emitter — albeit a weak one — meaning that it emits ionizing radiation that can damage DNA.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 23, 2023

Remember how ionizing radiation breaks apart the bonds in molecules?

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023