megatonnage

[ meg-uh-tuhn-ij ]

noun

1. the destructive capacity of nuclear explosives as measured in megatons.

Word History and Origins

Origin of megatonnage¹

1960–65; megaton + -age, after tonnage

Example Sentences

“There was a megatonnage race — who was going to have a bigger bomb,” said Robert S. Norris, a historian of the atomic age.

From New York Times

Its size and megatonnage were not announced, and technicians carefully covered all revealing parts with masking tape.

From Time

But when Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin took their seats for Saturday's opening summit session, held in Vancouver, the throw weights on the agenda were denominated less in nuclear megatonnage than in dollars and acres of private farmland and doses of medicine and people-to- people exchanges.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Belorussians and the rest would prefer that all that megatonnage remain Gorbachev's responsibility rather than become the property of Boris Yeltsin.

From Time Magazine Archive

American analysts were similarly baffled by another vague Gorbachev claim, made during his final press conference, that the Soviets possessed the means to identify the location and megatonnage of land- and sea-based nuclear weapons -- even those deployed on submarines.

From Time Magazine Archive