Manhattan Project

noun

1. U.S. History.,  the unofficial designation for the U.S. War Department's secret program, organized in 1942, to explore the isolation of radioactive isotopes and the production of an atomic bomb: initial research was conducted at Columbia University in Manhattan.

Manhattan Project

noun

1. (during World War II) the code name for the secret US project set up in 1942 to develop an atomic bomb

Manhattan Project

1. The code name for the effort to develop atomic bombs (see also atomic bomb) for the United States during World War II. The first controlled nuclear reaction took place in Chicago in 1942, and by 1945, bombs had been manufactured that used this chain reaction to produce great explosive force. The project was carried out in enormous secrecy. After a test explosion in July 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (see also Hiroshima) and Nagasaki.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Manhattan Project¹

Extracted from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Manhattan District and DSM (Development of Substitute Materials) Project

Example Sentences

If you saw Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film “Oppenheimer,” you might remember the character of Vannevar Bush, one of the bosses who oversaw the Manhattan Project.

From Salon

It was, after all, the fear of a Nazi bomb that first catalyzed the Manhattan Project that would create the American bombs.

From Salon

The Manhattan Project that they had joined on the basis of a belief that they were in an existential arms race with Nazi Germany had, by then, revealed itself to be a distinctly one-sided contest.

From Salon

His solution, a supposedly unifying national mission, is — wait for it! — a modern Manhattan Project for the development of the military applications of artificial intelligence.

From Salon

St Louis, meanwhile, was where uranium was refined and used to help create the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project.

From BBC