Meanings
- historicalA spherical subcritical mass of plutonium manufactured during World War II by the United States as a fissile core for an early atomic bomb.
- figurativelyuncountableA essential instance or part of something, especially something malevolent.
California democrats is the demon core of Hitler partials when it comes to homelessness
2023 October 2, @MalevolentAstra, “Archived copy”, in Twitter, archived from the original on 07 Jun 20242 more examples
As Mazzocchi saw it, those chemicals that poisoned his union’s rank and file eventually make their way into communities outside — through the air, soil, and waterways. The factory was therefore the demon core of the environmental crisis.
2017 August 31, Connor Kilpatrick, “Victory Over the Sun”, in JacobinThat's the demon core of capitalism; you live decades watching companies do what appears to be reasonable, justifiable things and ignore the anti capitalists saying "does this not set a precedent for much more terrifying things?" No, no, ridiculous
2018 April 27, @gravislizard, TwitterSynonyms: beating heart
- figurativelyhumorousuncountableSomething that is especially dangerous and should not be tampered with, or otherwise reminiscent of the demon core.
Is this the demon core of noodles
2022 December 3, /u/isloohik2, “Nookular Noodles”, in Reddit, /r/CuratedTumblr2 more examples
She's a 'Demon Core' of gay energy. If you drop a screwdriver on one of the piercings, she goes supercritical.
2019 September 27, @VelocityCatte, TwitterThat this is like the demon core of edibles, you drop it and a whole city is getting high for years afterward.
2024 February 18, @RatboyJon, “Archived copy”, in Twitter, archived from the original on 07 Jun 2024
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA essential instance or part of something, especially something malevolent.
Origin
Referred as such due to its involvement in two fatal criticality accidents at the Los Alamos Laboratory in 1945 and in 1946. In the late 2010s, the circumstances of the second incident were popularized widely by science history videos and internet memes. The noun sense are figuratively derived from the proper noun.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Indonesian Inti iblis
- Inti iblisspherical mass of plutonium
Japanese デーモン・コア
- デーモン・コア (Dīmon Koa)spherical mass of plutonium
Polish Diabelski rdzeń
- Diabelski rdzeńspherical mass of plutonium
Portuguese núcleo do demônio
- núcleo do demôniospherical mass of plutonium
Spanish Núcleo del Demonio
- Núcleo del Demoniospherical mass of plutonium
Vietnamese Lõi Quỷ
- Lõi Quỷspherical mass of plutonium
Cite this entry
demon core. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/demon%20core
“demon core.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/demon%20core. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “demon core,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/demon%20core.
Source: demon core on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.