weapons of mass destruction

idiom

: weapons that can destroy entire cities, regions, etc.

Examples of weapons of mass destruction in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Oppenheimer guided the Manhattan Project as the head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, before becoming a critic of weapons of mass destruction. Brent Lang, Variety, 26 Apr. 2023 The Bush administration had drummed up support among members of Congress and Americans for invading Iraq by promoting false intelligence claims about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. Mary Clare Jalonick and Ellen Knickmeyer, Chicago Tribune, 16 Mar. 2023 And so the other kind of nuclear fission reaction is the uncontrolled kind, and this is your weapons of mass destruction. Quartz Staff, Quartz, 3 Mar. 2023 Iraqi deaths are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 U.S. troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush's administration falsely claimed that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Mary Clare Jalonick, ajc, 30 Mar. 2023 Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians died in years of fighting, as did nearly 5,000 U.S. troops, after then-President George W. Bush's administration made false claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hiding a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. Harold Maass, The Week, 30 Mar. 2023 Iraqi deaths are estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 U.S. troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush’s administration falsely claimed that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Mary Clare Jalonick, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Mar. 2023 Perhaps no institution has been as hurt by the Iraq failures as the American intelligence agencies, led by the C.I.A., which provided ammunition to the Bush administration’s case for war that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Robert Draper, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2023 America attacked Iraq after a long ginning-up campaign that cynically used 9/11 as a starting point, and that included lies about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq’s (nonexistent) involvement in the plot to attack America with hijacked planes. Nina Burleigh, The New Republic, 17 Mar. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'weapons of mass destruction.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near weapons of mass destruction

weaponsmith

weapons of mass destruction

wear

Cite this Entry

“Weapons of mass destruction.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weapons%20of%20mass%20destruction. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

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