radioactive
Americanadjective
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Physics, Chemistry. of, relating to, exhibiting, or caused by radioactivity.
A pressing issue in post-Soviet Russia is safe long-term storage of radioactive waste, from both military and civilian applications.
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relating to or being a person, topic, or matter that is likely to provoke intense negative reactions or disagreement.
The option of raising taxes to fund these expenditures is a politically radioactive approach that a majority of state policymakers have avoided.
adjective
Usage
What does radioactive mean? Radioactive describes something that exhibits or is caused by radioactivity. If something is radioactive, it emits radiation, which usually takes the form of electromagnetic waves or fast-moving elementary particles, such as protons or neutrons.While low doses of radiation are usually harmless, being exposed to large amounts of radiation will most likely kill you. For this reason, highly radioactive materials are often considered very dangerous and will only be handled by experts.Example: The radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants can damage the environment.
Other Word Forms
- nonradioactive adjective
- radioactively adverb
- unradioactive adjective
Etymology
Origin of radioactive
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.
“They are very complex ores with highly unusual mineralogy, and some of them have relatively high contents of the radioactive elements uranium and thorium,” Goodenough notes.
From Barron's
“They are very complex ores with highly unusual mineralogy, and some of them have relatively high contents of the radioactive elements uranium and thorium,” Goodenough notes.
From Barron's
The prison in Princetown, Devon, was closed in July 2024 after the government found levels of the radioactive gas were up to 10 times higher than the safe limit.
From BBC
Groundwater in these communities is contaminated with salt and naturally occurring radioactive elements.
From Salon
Deuterium is abundant, but tritium is scarce because it is radioactive, with a half-life of only 12.3 years.
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.
