thorium
noun
tho·ri·um
| \ ˈthȯr-ē-əm
\
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Definition of thorium
: a radioactive metallic element that is obtained especially from monazite and is usually associated with rare earths — see Chemical Elements Table
Examples of thorium in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In contrast to his Democratic rivals calling for a turn away from nuclear power, Yang calls for increasing investment in nuclear energy by mining thorium (not uranium used in nuclear weapons). — NBC News, "Andrew Yang picks climate change plan for his first major policy speech," 27 Aug. 2019 Searches had been made about how to poison a well and about uranium thorium fusion bombs, the search warrant affidavit said. — Kirk Mitchell, The Denver Post, "Boulder porn suspect researched bombs, poisons, mass killers and found addresses for Denver area synagogues and mosques," 8 Aug. 2019 Uranium-thorium dating of the calcite that had run over the art (a red dot, a red ladder, a red hand-stencil) showed this art to have been made, there in the darkness, around 65,000 years BP. — Tobias Carroll, Longreads, "‘The Underland Is a Deeply Human Realm’: Getting Down with Robert Macfarlane," 20 June 2019 Ores containing these rare earths typically contain radioactive material like thorium. — Klint Finley, WIRED, "Are Rare Earths the Next Pawn in the US-China Trade War?," 17 June 2019 As Laura Geggel reports for Live Science, the first of the dating techniques the researchers used measured uranium and thorium’s decay into helium to calculate the age of small zircon crystals retrieved from the site. — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, "Rock Art and Footprints Reveal How Ancient Humans Responded to Volcanic Eruption," 4 June 2019 Kaltofen, through the course of his study, found three of the highest levels of thorium radioactivity in the dust of three Hanford workers’ homes. — Hal Bernton, The Seattle Times, "Study: Traces of radioactive contamination found in homes of six Hanford workers," 14 June 2018 But thorium couldn't produce anywhere near the energy the Orville would require. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "The Orville blends science fiction and science fact into a winning mix," 29 Dec. 2018 The older a flowstone gets, the more thorium builds up inside it. — Carl Zimmer, New York Times, "Neanderthals, the World’s First Misunderstood Artists," 22 Feb. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'thorium.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for thorium
thorium
noun
tho·ri·um
| \ ˈthōr-ē-əm, ˈthȯr-
\
\
Medical Definition of thorium
: a radioactive metallic element that occurs combined in minerals and is usually associated with rare earths
—symbol Th
— see Chemical Elements Table