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megadeath

American

[meg-uh-deth] / ˈmɛg əˌdɛθ /

noun

a unit of one million deaths: used in estimating or predicting the fatalities that would occur in a nuclear war.

megadeath British

/ ˈmɛɡəˌdɛθ /

noun

the death of a million people, esp in a nuclear war or attack

"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 megadeath

First recorded in 1950–55; mega- + death

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

megadeath

Even the nuclear realists, busy as their minds must be with calculations of acceptable levels of megadeath, would not want to overlook anything.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

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