defusion

D2E1F4U1S1I1O1N1
UK/diːˈfjuːʒən/

noun

The act of defusing.

Scrabble 12

Meanings

defusion1

noundefusion (uncountable)
  1. proscribeduncountableThe act of defusing.

    The story (as all stories do) ends with the timely interception of the bomb and its defusion.

    20C, R. K. Murthi (translator), Salma Zaidi (author), The Prophecies of Nostradamus, Pustak Mahal, Delhi, page 129
    5 more examples

    It seemed to us to express the right mixture of urgent concern and bracing responsibility that the middle 1970s require. But as the whole book shows, the megalopolitan time bomb is ticking uncomfortably fast. There is little margin for anyone to take a leisurely defusion course.

    1975, Peter Wilsher, Rosemary Righter, The Exploding Cities, Quadrangle, New York Times Book Co., →ISBN, page 13

    The loss of the collections was immediately reported to General Petrov and he detailed a special team of engineers and mine defusion experts to aid the men of the 164th battalion in their search.

    1987, Vladimir Karpov, translated by Y. S. Shurakov and L. Nicholas, The Commander, Brassey's, page 228

    1992, Scott M. Cutlip, “The invasion of public relations' domain by lawyers and marketers”, section 1, Communication World, International Association of Business Communicators Contrast Exxon's failures with Johnson & Johnson's successful defusion of its Tylenol crisis - that response directed by a seasoned public relations officer - Larry Foster.

    China’s long border made land mines an essential and legitimate means of defense, and the costs of converting large stockpiles and its productions lines to meet the three criteria in the revised Protocol II (detectability, self-defusion, and self-destruction) would be enormous.

    1999, Elizabeth Economy, Michel Oksenberg, China Joins the World: Progress and Prospects, Council on Foreign Relations,, →ISBN, page 115

    2002 August 1, Sara Powell, “Nuclear-powered animosities. (Human Rights)”, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, American Educational Trust Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, executive director of the Kashmiri-American Council, argued that the international community...made a fundamental mistake by making its primary objective the defusion of tension rather than trying to settle the issue of Kashmir.

defusion2

noundefusion (countable and uncountable, plural defusions)

plural defusions

  1. countableneologismuncountablehuman sciencesThe separation of an emotion or behavior-provoking verbal stimulus from the unwanted emotional or behavioral response as part of a therapeutic process. A neologism meant to indicate the reversal of thought-emotion-action fusion.

    […] acceptance involves deliteralization: the defusion of the derived relations and functions of events from the direct functions of these events.

    1994, Steven C. Hayes, Content, context, and the types of psychological acceptance, Context Press, →ISBN, page 31

defusion3

noun
  1. misspellingMisspelling of diffusion.

    The duration of the heat radiation from the bomb is so short, just a few thousandths of a second, that there is no time for the energy falling on a surface to be dissipated by thermal defusion; the flash burn is typically a surface effect.

    1946 June 29, David B. Parker, editor, A Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki, The Manhattan Engineer District, Kessinger Publishing, published 2004, →ISBN, page 27

Origin

defusion · noun

From defuse + -ion, apparently by analogy with fusion etc.

Full word history & related roots →

defusion · noun

  1. Proto-Indo-European*de
  2. Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
  3. Proto-Italic*dē
  4. Latindē
  5. Latindē-
  6. Englishde-
  7. Englishfusion
  8. Englishdefusion

From de- + fusion.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

defusion. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/defusion

MLA

“defusion.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/defusion. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “defusion,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/defusion.

Source: defusion on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.