Chernobyl

//tʃɜːˈnɒbəl// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A major nuclear-energy accident. broadly

    "Many secret cities were Chernobyls in slow motion."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A partially abandoned city and ghost town in northern Ukraine, known as the site of a nuclear disaster.

    "A couple of oil shocks, a Chernobyl meltdown, and a Gulf War later, his basic message - the need to emphasize efficiency and renewable resources over oil and nuclear power - is still a minority view,[…]"

  2. 2
    The 1986 nuclear accident which resulted in the abandonment of the aforementioned city. broadly

    "After Chernobyl, very few nuclear power plants were built for years."

Example

More examples

"Twenty-five years after Chernobyl, milk, mushrooms and berries are still contaminated in some parts of Ukraine."

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian Черно́быль (Černóbylʹ).

Related phrases

Chernobyl syndrome

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.