overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

nuke.

A nuclear weapon.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/njuːk/Received-Pronunciation/n(j)uk/General-American
  1. A nuclear weapon.

    US · colloquial
  2. Something that destroys or negates, especially on a catastrophic scale.

    US · broadly · colloquial
  3. A nuclear power station.

    US · colloquial
  4. A vessel such as a ship or submarine running on nuclear power.

    US · colloquial
  5. A person (such as a sailor in a navy or a scientist) who works with nuclear weapons or nuclear power.

    US · colloquial
  6. A cautionary flag placed on a release to label it as "bad" for some reason or another (e.g., being a dupe of a previous release or containing malware).

    US · colloquial
  7. A microwave oven.

    US · colloquial · rare
    Just put it in the nuke for two minutes and it will be ready to eat.
  8. A spell, item or ability that does a large amount of damage over a short period of time.

    US · colloquial
Where this word comes from

Clipping of nuclear weapon. The verb is derived from the noun.

verb/njuːk/Received-Pronunciation/n(j)uk/General-American
  1. To use a nuclear weapon on (a target).

    Canada · US · colloquial · transitive
    If a nuclear war ever breaks out, military facilities are likely to be nuked first.
  2. To destroy or erase completely.

    Canada · US · colloquial · figuratively · transitive
    He had his posts nuked from the Google archives.
  3. To carry out a denial-of-service attack against (an IRC user).

    Internet · US · broadly · colloquial · transitive
  4. To maliciously destroy an online community or chat server (especially on Discord) by mass-deleting channels, roles, and messages, or by mass-banning members, often using an automated script or bot.

    Internet · US · colloquial · transitive
    The Chaos Gang managed to get administrator permissions and nuke the entire server in seconds.
  5. To expose to some form of radiation.

    Canada · US · colloquial · transitive
  6. To cook in a microwave oven.

    Canada · US · colloquial · transitive
    I’ll nuke some pizza for dinner.
  7. To overanalyze or despair unduly over something.

    US · colloquial · transitive
Where this word comes from

Clipping of nuclear weapon. The verb is derived from the noun.

noun/njuːk/Received-Pronunciation/n(j)uk/General-American
  1. Alternative spelling of nuc (“nucleus colony of bees”).

    US · alt-of · alternative · colloquial
Where this word comes from

Clipping of nuc(leus).

noun/njuːk/Received-Pronunciation/n(j)uk/General-American
  1. Alternative form of nucha (“spinal cord; nape of the neck”).

    US · alt-of · alternative · colloquial · obsolete
Where this word comes from

See nucha.

noun/njuːk/Received-Pronunciation/n(j)uk/General-American
  1. Alternative form of nook (“a corner of a piece of land; an angled piece of land, especially one extending into other land”).

    Northern-England · US · alt-of · alternative · archaic · colloquial
Where this word comes from

See nook.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

nuke has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

nuke studionuke workshello, nuke

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.