kiloton
noun
ki·lo·ton
| \ ˈki-lə-ˌtən also -ˌtän
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Definition of kiloton
1
: 1000 tons
2
: an explosive force equivalent to that of 1000 tons of TNT
Examples of kiloton in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Earlier this year, it was announced that in late 2018, a space rock had exploded above the Earth's surface with an impact energy of 173 kilotons. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "A City-Killing Asteroid Got Uncomfortably Close to Earth," 30 July 2019 The resulting shock wave was as powerful as a 550 kiloton nuclear explosion—and the Tunguska object was probably much larger. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "New research on Tunguska finds such events happen less often than we thought," 17 July 2019 In 2017, the US military bought about 269,230 barrels of oil a day and emitted more than 25,000 kilotons of carbon dioxide by burning those fuels. — Benjamin Neimark, Quartz, "The US military is a bigger polluter than more than 100 countries combined," 28 June 2019 The explosive yield of nuclear weapon is typically measured in kilotons, or thousand tons of TNT. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "What If We Blew Up All The World’s Nukes at Once?," 1 Apr. 2019 The warhead’s explosive yield is said to be 2 megatons, or 2,000 kilotons. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Russia Releases Test Video of Poseidon Nuclear Attack Drone," 22 Feb. 2019 By comparison, the Hiroshima bomb was approximately 16 kilotons. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Russia Releases Test Video of Poseidon Nuclear Attack Drone," 22 Feb. 2019 The total volume of aluminum products exported from the EU to the U.S. rose 8% to 353 kilotons in 2017, representing an approximate value of €1.2 billion, according to Eurostat. — Bob Tita, WSJ, "Foreign Aluminum Producers Shake Off U.S. Tariffs," 26 Oct. 2018 In 2015, the United States was responsible for a sixth of the world's emissions, releasing 5.1 million kilotons of carbon dioxide. — Susmita Baral, Teen Vogue, "Trump and the Paris Climate Change Agreement, Explained," 2 Aug. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'kiloton.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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