nuclear warhead

[noo-klee-er wawr-hed, nyoo-]

noun

1. a warhead containing a fission or fusion bomb.

Pronunciation Note

See nuclear ( def. ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of nuclear warhead¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

What if they used it to launch a nuclear warhead and drop a bomb on us?

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According to American estimates, Beijing will reach rough parity with the U.S. in deployed nuclear warheads by the mid-2030s.

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He represents something between the pointy end of the spear and City’s personal nuclear warhead.

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In a test a year before, he’d launched a torpedo with a nuclear warhead and watched the fiery explosion through a periscope.

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Putin responded with a show of force, touting a 15-hour test of Russia’s Burevestnik missile, a cruise missile that the Kremlin leader says runs on nuclear energy and can carry a nuclear warhead.

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Related Words

• atomic bomb 
• hydrogen bomb 
• neutron bomb