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nuclear

[noo-klee-er, nyoo- or, by metathesis, -kyuh-ler]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

pertaining to or involving atomic weapons: nuclear war.

operated or powered by atomic energy: a nuclear submarine.

(of a nation or group of nations) having atomic weapons.

of, pertaining to, or forming a nucleus.

of, pertaining to, or like the nuclear family: nuclear bonds.

noun Informal.

nuclear energy: switching to nuclear as a power source.

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Nuclear is always a great word to know.

So is ort. Does it mean:

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

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Origin:
1840–50; nucle(us) + -ar¹; compare French nucléaire

Related forms

in·ter·nu·cle·ar, adjective

mul·ti·nu·cle·ar, adjective

post·nu·cle·ar, adjective

Pronunciation note
In pronouncing nuclear, the second and third syllables are most commonly said as

[-klee-er] , a sequence of sounds that directly reflects the spelled sequence ‐cle·ar. In recent years, a somewhat controversial pronunciation has come to public attention, with these two final syllables said as

[-kyuh-ler]. Since

[-klee-er], the common pronunciation of ‐cle·ar, might also be represented, broadly, as

[-kluh-yer], the

[-kyuh-ler] pronunciation can be seen as coming from a process of metathesis, in which the [l] and the [y] change places. EXPANDThe resulting pronunciation is reinforced by analogy with such words as molecular, particular, and muscular, and although it occurs with some frequency among highly educated speakers, including scientists, professors, and government officials, it is disapproved of by many

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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To nuclear

Example Sentences

Alarmism about nuclear proliferation has become common coin in the foreign-policy establishment.

America's nuclear industry is about to embark on its biggest expansion in more than a generation.

India's government sees nuclear power as essential for meeting its growing energy needs, but public mistrust runs deep.

EXPAND

Alarmism about nuclear proliferation has become common coin in the foreign-policy establishment.

America's nuclear industry is about to embark on its biggest expansion in more than a generation.

India's government sees nuclear power as essential for meeting its growing energy needs, but public mistrust runs deep.

Nine countries could kill many people on a moment's notice by launching missiles carrying nuclear warheads.

Computers crashing worldwide, nuclear warheads being launched, boom boom pow.

It should be worried about the world's cadre of nuclear scientists.

Few of them have actually been specially designed to withstand a nuclear attack.

Asia promised to be the richest source of orders for new nuclear reactors.

Nuclear energy is considered by many people to be the only realistic alternative to fossil fuel to power our civilization.

With no permanent waste repository in sight, the nuclear industry is storing spent fuel at reactor sites.

America's nuclear bombers are supposed to be ready to go in a hurry.

Likewise, the relationship between matter and energy isn't immediately useful unless you are building a nuclear reactor.

The five countries officially recognised as having nuclear weapons are all committed to giving them up.

Most nuclear power plants are behemoths, big enough to power a medium-size city.

Taking apart a nuclear power plant that has reached the end of its life is a complicated task.

Pakistan is taking nuclear paranoia to a horrifying new low.

The same questions apply to the nuclear option: a lawsuit.

Those calculations could change dramatically if the nuclear crisis worsens.

Chinese researchers, meanwhile, are developing a small reactor in which the nuclear reaction itself is self-limiting.

The nuclear industry has this amazing record, even equipment from generations one and two.

It is a recognised nuclear weapons state and has the third or fourth highest defence spending in the world.

Iran's leaders think a nuclear weapon could rejuvenate their tired revolution.

Animals and plants seem to be prospering near the infamous nuclear reactor.

The lab's science and technology research includes work on nuclear nonproliferation and isotope production.

There are nations near bankruptcy and nuclear weapons.

Around the world radioactive nuclear reactors in derelict submarines dot the seafloor.

Nuclear weapons facilities aren't cleaning up fast enough, according to two reports released this week.

Scientists may have found a better way to detect concealed nuclear weapons-grade materials at border crossings around the world.

India is ready to increase its reliance on nuclear energy dramatically, in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Although nuclear energy is often held up as a viable alternative to coal and oil, it is not a renewable energy source.

Twentieth-century nuclear bomb tests had an unexpected side effect: revealing the resilience of the human heart.

But nuclear energy is, in fact, a nonrenewable resource.

The problem lies in the element that enables nuclear power: uranium.

Efforts to brand low-carbon nuclear technology as a renewable power continue to meet opposition.

Today nuclear weapons stoke nations' dreams of power--and give their citizens.

Nuclear waste is either a millennia's worth of lethal garbage or the fuel of future nuclear reactors--or both.

The lab is still used for nuclear research, as well as research into hydrogen fuel cells and supercomputers.

Nuclear weapons are often measured in kilotons, but that doesn't really tell the story of a weapon's destructive power.

The project has become more complex than nuclear physics.

They will compare and contrast low- and high-level nuclear waste, and make.

Nuclear plants are unstable thus prone to accidents and produce long lived nuclear waste.

The conference on nuclear threats must produce more than feel-good communiqués.

Nuclear power, once among environmentalists' chief enemies, is now being touted as an.

To developing nations, the new arguments for nuclear power are far from compelling.

In a world terrified by the prospect of nuclear war, the.

The nuclear disaster has shed new light on the legal battles that critics of the system have lost for years.

The decline of communities appears to have followed the demise of the nuclear family.

Operators of a nuclear reactor are hunkering down to defend it against a swollen river at its doorstep.

As long as opportunities and excuses for nuclear aggression persist, the world will never be safe from annihilation.

Nuclear powers have been inexcusably negligent about reducing arsenals and eliminating needlessly risky practices.

Organism's ability to distinguish strontium from calcium could help in dealing with nuclear waste.

All but abandoned twenty years ago, nuclear energy is again hot news.

Debates over nuclear power should focus on the advantages and disadvantages of each nuclear energy production method.

It is important to attempt to find solutions to the threat of nuclear terrorism.

The discovery of a new type of fission turns a tenet of nuclear theory on its head.

As if there weren't enough reasons to for the world to get rid of nuclear weapons, here's another one: nuclear winter.

Off campus, energy shortages may be creating talk of a nuclear power renaissance.

Another issue that comes to mind is the increasingly inward orientation of the nuclear family.

After attending a nuclear fuel symposium a few weeks.

Gayler was also an ardent advocate of nuclear disarmament.

Twenty years after a nuclear reactor exploded, blanketing thousands of square miles with radiation, the catastrophe isn't over.

Nuclear reactors generate energy through fission, the process.

While the idea of placing a nuclear plant in such an.

Nuclear ventriculography is a test that uses radioactive materials called tracers to show the heart chambers.

Using comic books to explore the issues and history of nuclear power.

China has great potential and incentive to speed up the development of nuclear energy, as its fast-growing.

The element thorium could make nuclear reactors more efficient and generate a lot less weapons-grade plutonium.

The public deserves a much fuller accounting of nuclear power's pros and cons.

Many of his advisers had long advocated modeling and actively planning for nuclear combat.

Tokyo has showered generous subsidies, payouts and jobs on local communities that host or expand nuclear power plants.

New anxiety about nuclear power could mean lost opportunities for reducing climate change.

Because it is a cleaner source of power than oil or coal, nuclear energy is often mistakenly referred to as a renewable resource.

Elsewhere, there are a growing number of countries planning or weighing a nuclear retrenchment.

White dwarfs are stars that have burned up all of the hydrogen they once used as nuclear fuel.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

nuclear (ˈnjuːklɪə)

—*adj*
1.	of, concerned with, or involving the nucleus of an atom: nuclear fission
2.	biology of, relating to, or contained within the nucleus of a cell: a nuclear membrane
3.	of, relating to, forming, or resembling any other kind of nucleus
4.	of, concerned with, or operated by energy from fission or fusion of atomic nuclei: a nuclear weapon
5.	involving, concerned with, or possessing nuclear weapons: nuclear war; a nuclear strike

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

nuclear

1846, "of or like the nucleus of a cell," from nucleus (q.v.), probably by influence of Fr. nucléaire. Use in atomic physics is from 1914; of weapons, from 1945. Hence nuclear physics (1933), nuclear energy (1941), nuclear war (1954). Nuclear winter coined by Richard

EXPAND

Turco, but first attested in article by Carl Sagan in "Parade" magazine, Oct. 30, 1983. General sense of "central" is from 1912. Nuclear family, originally a sociologists' term, is first attested 1949 in "Social Structure," by American anthropologist G.P. Murdock (18971985).

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American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

nuclear nu·cle·ar (n&oomacr;'klē-ər, ny&oomacr;'-)
adj.