Missile Meaning
/ˈmɪs.aɪl/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny object used as a weapon by being thrown or fired through the air, such as stone, arrow or bullet.
nounA self-propelled projectile whose trajectory can be adjusted after it is launched.
Sentence Examples
The missile attack took a heavy toll of lives.
The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The military launched a guided ____ that precisely hit its target today.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The advanced and expensive ____ was designed to intercept any incoming threats before they could reach their intended target on the ground.
Word Origin & History
From Latin missile (“thrown weapon, projectile”), neuter of missilis (“throwable, capable of being thrown”), from mittere (“to send”). From 1611. Compare Middle French missile (“projectile”), from 1636.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"And I saw askant the armies, / I saw as in noiseless dreams hundreds of battle-flags, / Borne through the smoke of the battles and pierc’d with missiles I saw them, / And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody, / And at last but a few shreds left on the staffs, (and all in silence,) / And the staffs all splinter’d and broken."
— 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The military launched a guided ____ that precisely hit its target today.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The advanced and expensive ____ was designed to intercept any incoming threats before they could reach their intended target on the ground.