Radioactive

//ˌɹeɪdiəʊˈaktɪv// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any radioactive substance.

    "Any ship nearby will receive a lethal dose of gamma rays, neutrons, and other radioactives."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Exhibiting radioactivity.

    "As a matter of fact many of our best drinking waters have all sorts of unspecified qualities. Burton water, for example, is radioactive by Beetham's standards up to the ninth degree."

  2. 2
    Dangerous and disgusting, particularly of people or ideas. figuratively, rare

    "Even sleazy tactics and his radioactive mouth may not be able to contain this debacle."

Adjective
  1. 1
    exhibiting or caused by radioactivity wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
chargedcontaminatedhotinfectedirradiatedpoisoned

Example

More examples

"Another interesting source of energy is the heat that can be recovered from radioactive waste material."

Etymology

Coined by Pierre Curie and Marie Curie in 1898 as French radio-actif, equivalent to English radio- + active.

Related phrases

radioactive datingradioactive decayradioactive disintegrationradioactive equilibriumradioactive falloutradioactive tracerradioactive waste

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