FIREBALL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fireball mean? 

• FIREBALL (noun)
  The noun FIREBALL has 4 senses:

1. an especially luminous meteor (sometimes exploding)

2. a highly energetic and indefatigable person

3. a ball of fire (such as the sun or a ball-shaped discharge of lightning)

4. the luminous center of a nuclear explosion

  Familiarity information: FIREBALL used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FIREBALL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An especially luminous meteor (sometimes exploding)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

bolide; fireball

Hypernyms ("fireball" is a kind of...):

meteor; shooting star (a streak of light in the sky at night that results when a meteoroid hits the earth's atmosphere and air friction causes the meteoroid to melt or vaporize or explode)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A highly energetic and indefatigable person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

ball of fire; fireball; human dynamo; powerhouse

Hypernyms ("fireball" is a kind of...):

actor; doer; worker (a person who acts and gets things done)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fireball"):

self-starter (an energetic person with unusual initiative)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A ball of fire (such as the sun or a ball-shaped discharge of lightning)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("fireball" is a kind of...):

ball; globe; orb (an object with a spherical shape)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The luminous center of a nuclear explosion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("fireball" is a kind of...):

ball; globe; orb (an object with a spherical shape)

Holonyms ("fireball" is a part of...):

atomic explosion; nuclear explosion (the explosion of an atomic bomb)

 Context examples 

The fireballs present a puzzle to astronomers, because the ejected material could not have been shot out by the host star, called V Hydrae.

(Hubble Detects Giant 'Cannonballs' Shooting from Star, NASA)

The data indicate that Earth's atmosphere was impacted by small asteroids, resulting in a bolide (or fireball), on 556 separate occasions in a 20-year period.

(New Map Shows Frequency of Small Asteroid Impacts, Provides Clues on Larger Asteroid Population, NASA)

Upon detonation, a first blast wave expelled an expanding fireball of plasma, a hot gas of electrically charged particles.

(Space Weather Events Linked to Human Activity, NASA)

By reanalysing the 2017 data from the merger, we have now identified the signature of one heavy element in this fireball, strontium, proving that the collision of neutron stars creates this element in the Universe, says the study’s lead author Darach Watson from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

(First identification of a heavy element born from neutron star collision, ESO)

The group of four geologists from Ural Federal University set out for the Lut desert, or Dasht-e-Lut, in search of evidence of meteorites - similar to the one that crashed to earth in an impressive fireball over the Russian town of Chelyabinsk in 2013.

(Huge Haul of Extraterrestrial Material Recovered from Iranian Desert, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)