Rutherford
//ˈrʌðərfərd// name, noun
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An obsolete unit of radioactivity (symbol: rd), defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one million nuclei decay per second.
- 2 a unit strength of a radioactive source equal to one million disintegrations per second wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A Scottish habitational surname from Old English from a place where there was once a settlement in the Scottish borders.
"One of the things making the trip possible is Rutherford’s microlight aircraft. Microlights are small one or two-seat planes used for leisure or personal transport. If she completes her trip, Rutherford will also claim the record for the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo in a microlight aircraft."
- 2 A male given name transferred from the surname. rare
- 3 A suburb of Newcastle in the Maitland council area, New South Wales, Australia.
- 4 A neighbourhood in south Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
- 5 A number of places in the United States:; A census-designated place in Napa County, California.
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 A number of places in the United States:; A borough in Bergen County, New Jersey.
- 7 A number of places in the United States:; A census-designated place in Swatara Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
- 8 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Fairfax County, Virginia.
- 9 A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Ritchie County, West Virginia.
Example
More examples"Rutherford Hayes was born in Ohio in 1822."
Etymology
Etymology 1
After Ernest Rutherford.
Etymology 2
From Old English hryþer (“cattle”) + ford (“ford”). The first element is from Proto-Germanic *hrunþaz.
Related phrases
More for "rutherford"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.