adj ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Of a speed, equal to, or greater than, or capable of achieving, five times the speed of sound.

   "He said there was worry among intelligence and military officials that China or Russia could be experimenting with hypersonic technology."

2. 2
   Of a speed, far enough above the speed of sound as to cause significant differences in behaviour due to chemical reactions or dissociation of the air.

Synonyms

All synonyms

acousticacousticalphonictransonic

Example

More examples

"The United States has no defense against hypersonic missiles."

Etymology

From hyper- + sonic. Doublet of supersonic.

Related phrases

hypersonic bombhypersonic glide vehiclehypersonic missilehypersonic weaponspeed of sound

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