Thermobaric
adj, noun
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A thermobaric weapon.
Adjective
- 1 Describing various weapons that use atmospheric oxygen to produce a blast wave of a significantly longer duration than those produced by condensed explosives. not-comparable
"Fears have risen over the use of thermobaric weapons by Russia after the Ukrainian ambassador to the US said a vacuum bomb – another term for the weapon – had been used during the invasion."
Example
More examples"Fears have risen over the use of thermobaric weapons by Russia after the Ukrainian ambassador to the US said a vacuum bomb – another term for the weapon – had been used during the invasion."
Etymology
From thermo- + baric, derived from the Ancient Greek words for “heat” and “pressure”: θερμοβαρικός (thermobarikós), from θερμός (thermós, “hot”) + βάρος (báros, “weight, pressure”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”).
Related phrases
More for "thermobaric"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.