noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A measure of the strength of an explosion or a bomb based on how many thousand tons of TNT would be needed to produce the same energy. (A derived unit for TNT equivalent.)

   "Holonyms: megaton < gigaton < teraton < petaton < exaton (rare) < zettaton (rare) < yottaton (rare)"

2. 2
   a measure of explosive power (of an atomic weapon) equal to that of 1000 tons of TNT wordnet
3. 3
   One thousand tons.; One thousand short tons (10³ × 2000 lb).
4. 4
   one thousand tons wordnet
5. 5
   One thousand tons.; One thousand long tons (10³ × 2240 lb).

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6. 6
   One thousand tons.; One thousand metric tons (10³ × 2204.6 lb).

   "Holonyms: megaton < gigaton"

Example

More examples

"Holonyms: megaton < gigaton < teraton < petaton < exaton (rare) < zettaton (rare) < yottaton (rare)"

Etymology

From kilo- + ton.

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