neutron bomb

noun

: a nuclear bomb designed to produce lethal neutrons but less blast and fire damage than other nuclear bombs

Examples of neutron bomb in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The video hit the culture like a neutron bomb and titillated everyone. Touré, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2025 Helmut Schmidt was furious with Carter for unilaterally deciding to cancel the deployment of neutron bombs in Western Europe. Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY, 30 Dec. 2024 Some 46 years after Adam West’s Batman ran around a pier with an oversize bomb, Christian Bale’s Dark Knight fought Bane for control over a fusion-reactor core that was transformed into a decaying neutron bomb. James Grebey, Vulture, 20 July 2023 Just as the books begin to close on Tesla’s challenging second quarter, CEO Elon Musk has dropped what seems to be a neutron bomb on the market. Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 23 June 2022 One experiment was to determine how long soldiers could continue to fight after being irradiated by a neutron bomb. New York Times, 11 Jan. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of neutron bomb was in 1959

Cite this Entry

“Neutron bomb.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neutron%20bomb. Accessed 4 Jul. 2026.

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