Word.ws English Dictionary

Chernobyl

/tʃɜːˈnɒbəl/US/t͡ʃɚˈnoʊbəl/

Chernobyl proper noun: a partially abandoned city and ghost town in northern Ukraine, known as the site of a nuclear disaster.

Proper noun

Chernobyl

  1. A partially abandoned city and ghost town in northern Ukraine, known as the site of a nuclear disaster.
    • A couple of oil shocks, a Chernobyl meltdown, and a Gulf War later, his basic message - the need to emphasize efficiency and renewable resources over oil and nuclear power - is still a minority view,[…]1991 July 26, Brad Knickerbocker, “Think Tank on the Efficient Energy Trail”, in Christian Science Monitor
  2. (broadly) The 1986 nuclear accident which resulted in the abandonment of the aforementioned city.
    • After Chernobyl, very few nuclear power plants were built for years.
  3. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the location where the accident occurred.
    • Although it no longer produces electricity, many people still work at Chernobyl decommissioning the plant.

Noun

Chernobyl (plural Chernobyls)

  1. (broadly) A major nuclear-energy accident.
    • Many secret cities were Chernobyls in slow motion.1994 August, “Nuclear chaos”, in Popular Science, volume 245, number 2, page 54
    • The effects of a Chernobyl disaster in my community would probably be barely noticeable.1999 May 6, Terence Scully, “When cell phones kill our brain waves, we will worry less”, in The Record (Kitchener, Ont.)

Chernobyl meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Arabic

Chernobyl in Hindi

city in Ukraine
चेरनोबिल cernobil

Chernobyl in Marathi

city in Ukraine
चेरनोबिल cernobil

Chernobyl in Bengali

city in Ukraine
চেরনোবিল cernōbil

Chernobyl in Arabic

city in Ukraine
تْشِيرْنُوبِيل tširnūbil

Examples of Chernobyl in a sentence

  • So those would be a lot of Chernobyls that the ecosystem would have to deal with.2007 September 7, “Imagining a World Without Humans”, in NPR_TalkNation:
  • It has to be handled properly with great accuracy and no room for mistakes, because if we do have like a Chernobyl catastrophe, God forbid, it could wipe out our entire people.2010 March 10, Ben Garcia, “Many Kuwaitis yet to be convinced on nuke energy”, in Kuwait Times:

Forms of Chernobyl

Proper noun
alternative UkraineChornobyl
Noun
pluralChernobyls

Origin of Chernobyl

Borrowed from Russian Черно́быль (Černóbylʹ). The place name is from Russian чернобыль (černobylʹ), meaning “mugwort” or “wormwood”. Doublet of Chornobyl, from the Ukrainian cognate.

Words formed from Chernobyl

Words that rhyme with Chernobyl

Questions about Chernobyl

What does Chernobyl mean?
Chernobyl means a partially abandoned city and ghost town in northern Ukraine, known as the site of a nuclear disaster.
What is Chernobyl in Hindi?
Chernobyl in Hindi is चेरनोबिल (cernobil). See Chernobyl meaning in Hindi.
How do you use Chernobyl in a sentence?
So those would be a lot of Chernobyls that the ecosystem would have to deal with.
What part of speech is Chernobyl?
Chernobyl can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Chernobyl?
Chernobyl is pronounced /tʃɜːˈnɒbəl/ (UK).

Words near Chernobyl in the dictionary

  1. Cherniak
  2. Chernigov
  3. Chernihiv
  4. chernikovite
  5. Chernivtsi
  6. Chernobyl
  7. Chernobyl syndrome
  8. Chernobylian
  9. Chernobylic
  10. chernobylite
  11. Chernobyls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Chernobyl (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Chernobyl.wav.

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