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🛡️ Missile defense 🛡️ Stops missiles
antimissile

antimissile

5.5
Made to detect and destroy incoming missiles before they reach a target
  • adjective
  • /ˌæntiˈmɪsəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : antimisiles
  • Developing new antimissile technologies is crucial for national security.
  • antimissile defense
  • antimissile system

Examples

  • Washington claims that an antimissile defense system will not be directed against Russia and is a defensive measure to assure U.S. national security against new post-Cold War threats.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Russia is to lift its ban on the sale of antimissile rocket systems to Iran.

    Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party (2016)

  • Finally, a small addendum to the reports supports the claim that the IDF has reached its antimissile weapons limit.

    Blog text (10)

  • The U.S. government's announcement in December 2002 of its intention to deploy an antimissile system by 2004 brought renewed official Chinese condemnation.

    Academic text (2003)

  • A decoy is a supertanker filled with water and equipped with antimissile defenses.

    Blog text (28)

  • The military successfully tested an antimissile system to intercept incoming threats.

  • Countries are investing in antimissile defenses to protect against potential missile attacks.

Synonyms

antiballistic
vsantimissile
  • Specialized
1 7.3

Made to stop incoming missiles before they reach their target

is broader and covers all incoming missile types not only ballistic ones

Surface Forms

antimissile positive

Morphology

antimissile = missile (transparent) = anti + missile

The meaning is directly compositional: 'anti-' means against or counteracting, and 'missile' supplies the target being opposed.

Etymology

The word antimissile is built from the prefix anti- meaning 'against' and missile, which comes from an old word meaning 'to send' and is like mission. So an antimissile system is meant to act 'against' missiles, to find and stop them before they reach their target.