Word.ws English Dictionary

throw-weight

throw-weight noun: a measure of the effective weight of ballistic missile payloads, given in kilograms or tonnes.

Noun

throw-weight (countable and uncountable, plural throw-weights)

  1. A measure of the effective weight of ballistic missile payloads, given in kilograms or tonnes.
    • The Soviet arsenal of deliverable nuclear weapons was significantly smaller than the American one in 1960, but grew fast. By 1964 it had reached about 1,000 megatonnes, or about 13 per cent greater than the US 'throw weight' in that year, but less than the Americans had had in 1964.2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 76
  2. A measure of the total weight of projectiles that can be delivered by a single broadside.

Forms of throw-weight

pluralthrow-weights
alternative formthrow weight

Origin of throw-weight

From throw + weight.

Questions about throw-weight

What does throw-weight mean?
Throw-weight means a measure of the effective weight of ballistic missile payloads, given in kilograms or tonnes.
What part of speech is throw-weight?
Throw-weight is a noun.
What is the plural of throw-weight?
The plural of throw-weight is throw-weights.

Words near throw-weight in the dictionary

  1. throw-offs
  2. throw-out
  3. throw-outs
  4. throw-up
  5. throw-ups
  6. throw-weight
  7. throw-weights
  8. throwability
  9. throwable
  10. throwables
  11. throward

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throw-weight (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.

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