uranium-235

noun

A fissile isotope of uranium, used for energy generation and in atomic weapons, containing 143 neutrons. It has a half-life of 7.038×10⁸ years; it decays into thorium-231 and ultimately lead.

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Meanings

nounuranium-235 (uncountable)
  1. uncountablenatural sciencesA fissile isotope of uranium, used for energy generation and in atomic weapons, containing 143 neutrons. It has a half-life of 7.038×10⁸ years; it decays into thorium-231 and ultimately lead.

    The Zaporizhzhia plant provided about a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before Russia’s invasion, and has been forced to operate on backup generators a number of times. It has six Soviet-designed water-cooled and water-moderated reactors containing uranium-235.

    2022 November 21, Lorenzo Tondo, Peter Beaumont, “Ukraine to start evacuations in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions as winter sets in”, in The Guardian

Origin

From uranium + 235 (the atomic mass of the isotope).

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Cite this entry
APA

uranium-235. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uranium-235

MLA

“uranium-235.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uranium-235. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “uranium-235,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uranium-235.

Source: uranium-235 on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.