radiation
nounCA, UK, US /ˌɹeɪ.diˈeɪ.ʃən/ · /ɹæ.diˈeɪ.ʃən/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin radiatio, radiationis. By surface analysis, radiate + -ion.
1
The shooting forth of anything from a point or surface, like diverging rays of light.
- The radiation of love from the crowd was addictive to the young singer-songwriters.
2
Abbreviation, Ellipsis, Often Ellipsis of electromagnetic radiation.
- heat radiation
3
The process of radiating waves or particles.
4
The transfer of energy via radiation.
5
Radioactive energy.
- It's Christmas at ground zero / And if the radiation level's OK / I'll go out with you / To see all the new / Mutations on New Year's Day1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:
6
A rapid diversification of an ancestral species into many new forms.
Evolutionary theory
- So the question is: have plants and animals retained over this huge amount of time—whole radiations of mammals have come and gone in this period—have they retained these potentially costly characteristics?2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, chapter 8, in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company:
- The second [canid group] is the radiation of dogs in South America that began when the first canids arrived about 3 Ma, after crossing the Panama land bridge (Fig. 5.4).2016, Donald R. Prothero, The Princeton Field Guide to Prehistoric Mammals, page 136:
- Derived terms
68 terms
acute radiation syndrome, adaptive radiation, alpha radiation, antiradiation, Askaryan radiation, background radiation, background radiation equivalent time, beta radiation, bioradiation, broadcast radiation, Cerenkov radiation, chemoradiation, Cherenkov radiation, cosmic background radiation, cosmic radiation, electromagnetic radiation, eradiation, gamma radiation, gravitational radiation, Hawking radiation, infrared radiation, ionising radiation, ionizing radiation, medium-wavelength infrared radiation, microwave radiation, microwave-radiation, non-ionizing radiation, nuclear radiation, postradiation, preradiation, radiational, radiation belt, radiation biology, radiation chemistry, radiation damage, radiation dose, radiation fog, radiation hardening, radiation impedance, radiationist, radiation labyrinth, radiation lampshade, radiationless, radiationlike, radiation maze, radiation physics, radiation poisoning, radiation pressure, radiationproof, radiation pyrometer, radiation resistance, radiation shielding, radiation sickness, radiation therapy, reradiation, Röntgen radiation, solar radiation, submillimeter wave radiation, superradiation, synchrotron radiation, terahertz radiation, thermal radiation, ultraviolet radiation, UV radiation, Van Allen radiation belt, X-radiation, x-radiation, X-ray radiation- Related terms
- radiate, radiative, nucleomitophobia