weapon of mass destruction
1
4.9
- noun
- Formal
:
arma de destrucción masiva cibernética
- It could release tremendous amounts of nuclear binding energy for peaceful purposes, but it could also be the basis for a weapon of mass destruction.
Examples
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Apathy is the biggest weapon of mass destruction we have in this country.
Blog text (33) -
Small arms, e.g., AK-47, are a weapon of mass destruction in small forms.
Blog text (18) -
"You're saying the issue in both cases, weapons of mass destruction and information intelligence coming to the U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, both cases the information was wrong.
Blog text (31) -
The problem is that your "portfolio" will become irrelevant when that system of global electronic fiat money fraud, backed by weapons of mass destruction, finally does collapse into chaos.
Blog text (31) -
The evil genius who conceived of using a passenger airplane in kamikaze mode calculated that its 200,000 pounds of jet fuel would make it a weapon of mass destruction.
Academic text (2001) -
The government is concerned about the potential threat posed by a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of rogue states.
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International regulations aim to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction that can threaten global security.
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After the attack, officials discovered the terrorists were planning to use a weapon of mass destruction to cause chaos and panic.
Antonyms
- Specialized
26
4.1
Protecting computers, networks, and information from online attacks
How Disruptive
- Formal
1
4.9
- Texting
4
7.5
- Specialized
8
7.9
- Specialized
43
4.3
- Specialized
211
2.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
weapon + of + mass + destruction
The phrase literally combines 'weapon' (an instrument of harm) with 'mass' (large-scale) and 'destruction' (irreversible damage), so a learner who knows those words can infer it means a weapon that causes large-scale damage. The 'of' linking and similar constructions in many languages make this compositional meaning predictable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Weapon of mass destruction is now also used for powerful computer attacks that can stop hospitals or power systems, because the idea is the same: one attack causing 'mass' damage to many people. So people use it to mean 'a cyber weapon that can cause very large-scale harm'.