fallout
The event of small airborne particles falling to the ground in significant quantities as a result of major industrial activity, volcano eruption, sandstorm, nuclear explosion, etc.
Other meanings
The particles themselves.
“On 26 April 1986 the reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant located in the Soviet Union near Pripyat in Ukraine exploded. Further explosions and the resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area.”
A negative side effect; an undesirable or unexpected consequence.
“Psychological fallout in the shadow of terrorism”
Synonyms
- radioactive dust
A kind of
- dust
Related words
- nonfallout
- atmospheric fallout
- borrower fallout
- chemical fallout
- executive fallout
- fallout contour
- fallout pattern
- fallout prediction
- fallout risk
- fallout safe height of burst
- fallout shelter
- fallout winds
Example sentences
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “fallout” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.