fireball

noun fire·ball \ ˈfī(-ə)r-ˌbȯl \

Updated on: 17 Apr 2018

Definition of fireball

1 : a ball of fire; also : something resembling such a ball

the primordial fireball associated with the beginning of the universe
—Scientific American

2 : a brilliant meteor that may trail bright sparks

3 : the highly luminous cloud of vapor and dust created by a nuclear explosion

4 : a highly energetic person

See fireball defined for English-language learners

See fireball defined for kids

Examples of fireball in a Sentence

The house erupted into a fireball.
what this club needs is a fireball who will bring some sorely needed energy and enthusiasm

Recent Examples of fireball from the Web

Instantly, most of a city block vanishes in a nuclear fireball two-thirds the size of the one that engulfed Hiroshima, Japan.

— m. mitchell waldrop, Science | AAAS, "What if a nuke goes off in Washington, D.C.? Simulations of artificial societies help planners cope with the unthinkable," 12 Apr. 2018
There is the fireball-throwing closer (Aroldis Chapman), the cool set-up man (David Robertson), the seventh-inning reliever with the knee-buckling curve (Dellin Betances), and the kid with the electric arm (Chad Green).

— wallace matthews, New York Times, "Yankees’ Bullpen Woes Continue in Loss to Orioles," 5 Apr. 2018
Hopefully, the fireballs will hit water instead of land.

— ashley may, USA TODAY, "What you should know about the massive Chinese space station hurling toward Earth," 29 Mar. 2018
Four years later came Upper Big Branch, where a spark from a longwall shearer ignited a fireball that hit accumulated coal dust, triggering a massive explosion.

— mason adams, The New Republic, "Trump’s Dark Reflection," 30 Mar. 2018
This speed will allow the probe to pass through the sun’s hazy atmosphere, or corona, at just 4 million miles above its surface—the closest a spacecraft has ever gotten to the fireball.

— eric niiler, WIRED, "NASA's New Parker Probe Will Skim the Sun's Surface," 28 Mar. 2018
An Iraqi teenager who arrived in Britain as an asylum seeker was found guilty on Friday of a bombing that sent a fireball through a London subway train last year, a case that raised questions about the country’s anti-radicalization efforts.

— New York Times, "Iraqi Convicted of Attempted Murder in London Tube Bombing," 16 Mar. 2018
Last week, a brilliant fireball lit up the skies over Michigan, exploding some 20 miles high in a ground-shaking blast.

— mika mckinnon, Smithsonian, "Meteorite Hunters Recover Fragments of Fireball That Exploded Over Michigan," 24 Jan. 2018
Assuming the worst, a detonation at ground level in Fountain Square would create a fireball stretching from Interstate 75 to Interstate 471, according to the website.

— cameron knight, Cincinnati.com, "A Cincinnatian's guide to nuclear war," 17 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fireball.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.