View synonyms for radioactive

radioactive

[ rey-dee-oh-ak-tiv ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

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.
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.

radioactive

/ ˌreɪdɪəʊˈæktɪv /

radioactive

A descriptive term for a material made up of atoms in which radioactivity occurs.

First recorded in 1895–1900; radio- + active

He was radioactive to those who once valued his political counsel and editorial avidity.

He was struck down inside an upmarket London hotel by a rare radioactive poison that had been slipped in to his pot of tea.

The Japanese monster gets a $160 million blockbuster reboot and protects mankind against a pair of radioactive MUTOs.

That would be Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, the gal who discovered radioactive polonium.

The Iranians now have most of the know-how and most of the radioactive stuff they need to build a bomb.

He thinks the big comet which hit the earth contained radioactive gas that made us all into metal.

A radioactive sodium atom contains a different number of neutrons.

Fortunately each kind of radioactive atom decays with a unique “pattern” scientists call a 11 “decay scheme”.

To do this we have to know the types of radiation emitted by the radioactive atoms we are trying to measure.

Radioactive atoms almost always decay by emitting negatively charged beta particles usually accompanied by gamma rays.

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