dirty bomb

dirty bomb noun: a device containing conventional explosives and radioactive material, designed to spread radiation over a wide area.

Noun

dirty bomb (plural dirty bombs)

A device containing conventional explosives and radioactive material, designed to spread radiation over a wide area.
- Without providing evidence, Shoigu said Ukraine could escalate by using a “dirty bomb” – conventional explosives laced with radioactive material.2022 October 24, Peter Beaumont, “Ukraine war heading for ‘uncontrolled escalation’, says Russia”, in The Guardian
Synonyms:

radiological dispersal device, RDD, radiological bomb
A nuclear bomb that spreads radiation over a wide area due to inefficiency or by design.

Synonyms:

cobalt bomb, salted bomb

Antonyms:

clean bomb

device containing conventional explosives and radioactive material: قُنْبُلَة قَذِرَة qunbula qaḏira

device containing conventional explosives and radioactive material: بمب کثیف bomb-e kasif

plural	dirty bombs

What does dirty bomb mean?: Dirty bomb means a device containing conventional explosives and radioactive material, designed to spread radiation over a wide area.
What is dirty bomb in Arabic?: Dirty bomb in Arabic is قُنْبُلَة قَذِرَة (qunbula qaḏira). See Dirty bomb meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is dirty bomb?: Dirty bomb is a noun.
What is the plural of dirty bomb?: The plural of dirty bomb is dirty bombs.

Adapted from Wiktionary: dirty bomb (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-dirty-bomb.ogg.

Cite this entry: “dirty bomb.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dirty_bomb. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.