SONIC BOOM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sonic boom mean? 

• SONIC BOOM (noun)
  The noun SONIC BOOM has 1 sense:

1. an explosive sound caused by the shock wave of an airplane traveling faster than the speed of sound

  Familiarity information: SONIC BOOM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SONIC BOOM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An explosive sound caused by the shock wave of an airplane traveling faster than the speed of sound

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

a sonic boom follows an aircraft as a wake follows a ship

Hypernyms ("sonic boom" is a kind of...):

blast wave; shock wave (a region of high pressure travelling through a gas at a high velocity)

 Context examples 

Senior experts and engineers from across the agency and the Lockheed Martin Corporation concluded Friday that the QueSST design is capable of fulfilling the LBFD aircraft’s mission objectives, which are to fly at supersonic speeds, but create a soft thump instead of the disruptive sonic boom associated with supersonic flight today.

(NASA Completes Milestone Toward Quieter Supersonic X-Plane, NASA)