"China syndrome" meaning in English

See China syndrome in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-China syndrome.ogg Forms: China syndromes [plural]
Etymology: Popularized via the 1979 disaster thriller film The China Syndrome. Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} China syndrome (countable and uncountable, plural China syndromes)
  1. (idiomatic, nuclear physics, uncountable) A hypothetical kind of catastrophic failure in which a nuclear reactor melts through the floor of its containment system and (if on land) penetrates the Earth's surface, continuing downward as if (from a Western Hemispheric point of view) traveling through the planet toward China. Tags: idiomatic, uncountable Categories (topical): Nuclear physics Translations (meltdown of a nuclear reactor): 中國綜合症 /中国综合症 (Zhōngguó zònghézhèng) (Chinese Mandarin), Kiina-ilmiö (Finnish), syndrome chinois [masculine] (French), China-Syndrom [neuter] (German), sindrome cinese [feminine] (Italian), チャイナ・シンドローム (China shindorōmu) (Japanese), chiński syndrom [masculine] (Polish), síndrome da China [feminine] (Portuguese), кита́йский синдро́м (kitájskij sindróm) [masculine] (Russian)
    Sense id: en-China_syndrome-en-noun-slt0sAbw Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Italian translations, Terms with Japanese translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, Terms with Russian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 36 8 36 19 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 36 7 35 22 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 38 4 37 21 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 40 3 35 22 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 37 8 34 22 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 36 7 36 22 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 37 7 34 22 Disambiguation of Terms with Italian translations: 37 7 35 21 Disambiguation of Terms with Japanese translations: 37 7 35 21 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 34 9 37 20 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 33 9 36 22 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 38 10 31 21 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 37 7 35 21 Disambiguation of 'meltdown of a nuclear reactor': 81 4 9 5
  2. (idiomatic, nuclear physics, countable) A specific instance of this type of failure. Tags: countable, idiomatic Categories (topical): Nuclear physics
    Sense id: en-China_syndrome-en-noun-6oCXmHAu Categories (other): Terms with Portuguese translations Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 38 10 31 21
  3. (idiomatic, countable, sometimes fanciful) A behavior, policy, or situation characteristic of or involving China; an actual or potential catastrophe, especially one involving China. Tags: countable, idiomatic Synonyms: China Syndrome Hypernyms (nuclear catastrophe): meltdown
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  4. (medicine) A rare disease, first characterized in the early 1990s, which resembles polio but which has somewhat different characteristics and occurs in persons vaccinated for polio. Tags: countable, uncountable Categories (topical): Medicine
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Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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          "ref": "1971 December 12, Ralph E. Lapp, “Thoughts on Nuclear Plumbing.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, page E11:",
          "text": "The Ergen report contains an analysis showing that the high-temperature mass would sink into the earth and grow in size for about two years. […] This behavior projection is known as the China syndrome.",
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          "ref": "1979, Mike Gray, T. S. Cook, James Bridges, The China Syndrome:",
          "text": "Dr. Lowell: If that's true, we came very close to the China Syndrome.\nKimberly Wells: The what?\nDr. Lowell: If the core is exposed for whatever reason, the fuel heats beyond core heat tolerance in a matter of minutes. Nothing can stop it. And it melts down right through the bottom of the plant, theoretically to China. But of course, as soon as it hits ground water, it blasts into the atmosphere and sends out clouds of radioactivity.",
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          "ref": "2002 September 20, Douglas M. Chapin, Karl P. Cohen, W. Kenneth Davis, Edwin E. Kintner, Leonard J. Koch, “Nuclear Power Plants and Their Fuel as Terrorist Targets”, in Science, volume 297, number 5589, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 1997–1999:",
          "text": "The molten mass did not even fully penetrate the 0.5-cm cladding, confirming tests in Karlsruhe, Germany, and in Idaho, that the \"China syndrome\" is not a credible possibility.",
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          "ref": "1983, Dorothy S. Zinberg, chapter I, in Uncertain Power: The Struggle for a National Energy Policy, →ISBN, page 43:",
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          "ref": "1984, Tom Clancy, “The Thirteenth Day: Wednesday, 15 December”, in The Hunt for Red October, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, pages 303–304:",
          "text": "Ames maneuvered the Avalon around the Alfa's bow, working the directional propeller carefully and adjusting trim to cruise down the other side, actually the top of the dead sub. \"See any evidence of a hull fracture?\"\n\"No,\" the ensign answered, \"just the two burn-throughs. I wonder what went wrong?\"\n\"A for-real China Syndrome. It finally happened to somebody.\" Ames shook his head. If there was anything the navy preached about reactors, it was safety. \"Get the transducer against the hull. We'll see if anybody's alive in there.\"",
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          "ref": "2000 January 11, Stan Sesser, “Now It's Time to Figure Out Who Caused All the Y2K Fuss”, in Wall Street Journal, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Contrary to accounts in the media, he states, \"bugs of this nature don't cause China Syndromes or missile launches, at least not generally.\"",
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          "ref": "2005, Justin Lahart. \"Ahead of the Tape,\" Wall Street Journal (Eastern ed.), 6 Oct., p. C1",
          "text": "And then there is the China syndrome. […] China now represents about 20% of Korea's total trade."
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      "expansion": "China syndrome (countable and uncountable, plural China syndromes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hypernyms": [
    {
      "sense": "nuclear catastrophe",
      "word": "meltdown"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "Chi‧na‧syn‧drome"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "en:Nuclear physics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1971 December 12, Ralph E. Lapp, “Thoughts on Nuclear Plumbing.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, page E11:",
          "text": "The Ergen report contains an analysis showing that the high-temperature mass would sink into the earth and grow in size for about two years. […] This behavior projection is known as the China syndrome.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1979, Mike Gray, T. S. Cook, James Bridges, The China Syndrome:",
          "text": "Dr. Lowell: If that's true, we came very close to the China Syndrome.\nKimberly Wells: The what?\nDr. Lowell: If the core is exposed for whatever reason, the fuel heats beyond core heat tolerance in a matter of minutes. Nothing can stop it. And it melts down right through the bottom of the plant, theoretically to China. But of course, as soon as it hits ground water, it blasts into the atmosphere and sends out clouds of radioactivity.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002 September 20, Douglas M. Chapin, Karl P. Cohen, W. Kenneth Davis, Edwin E. Kintner, Leonard J. Koch, “Nuclear Power Plants and Their Fuel as Terrorist Targets”, in Science, volume 297, number 5589, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 1997–1999:",
          "text": "The molten mass did not even fully penetrate the 0.5-cm cladding, confirming tests in Karlsruhe, Germany, and in Idaho, that the \"China syndrome\" is not a credible possibility.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A hypothetical kind of catastrophic failure in which a nuclear reactor melts through the floor of its containment system and (if on land) penetrates the Earth's surface, continuing downward as if (from a Western Hemispheric point of view) traveling through the planet toward China."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "nuclear physics",
          "nuclear physics"
        ],
        [
          "hypothetical",
          "hypothetical"
        ],
        [
          "catastrophic",
          "catastrophic"
        ],
        [
          "failure",
          "failure"
        ],
        [
          "nuclear reactor",
          "nuclear reactor"
        ],
        [
          "melt",
          "melt"
        ],
        [
          "containment",
          "containment"
        ],
        [
          "land",
          "land"
        ],
        [
          "penetrate",
          "penetrate"
        ],
        [
          "Earth",
          "Earth"
        ],
        [
          "surface",
          "surface"
        ],
        [
          "Western Hemispheric",
          "Western Hemisphere"
        ],
        [
          "travel",
          "travel"
        ],
        [
          "planet",
          "planet"
        ],
        [
          "China",
          "China"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "nuclear physics",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, nuclear physics, uncountable) A hypothetical kind of catastrophic failure in which a nuclear reactor melts through the floor of its containment system and (if on land) penetrates the Earth's surface, continuing downward as if (from a Western Hemispheric point of view) traveling through the planet toward China."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Nuclear physics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1983, Dorothy S. Zinberg, chapter I, in Uncertain Power: The Struggle for a National Energy Policy, →ISBN, page 43:",
          "text": "The report judged the risks of catastrophic nuclear power plant accidents (known as core meltdowns or China syndromes) to be socially acceptable.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1984, Tom Clancy, “The Thirteenth Day: Wednesday, 15 December”, in The Hunt for Red October, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, pages 303–304:",
          "text": "Ames maneuvered the Avalon around the Alfa's bow, working the directional propeller carefully and adjusting trim to cruise down the other side, actually the top of the dead sub. \"See any evidence of a hull fracture?\"\n\"No,\" the ensign answered, \"just the two burn-throughs. I wonder what went wrong?\"\n\"A for-real China Syndrome. It finally happened to somebody.\" Ames shook his head. If there was anything the navy preached about reactors, it was safety. \"Get the transducer against the hull. We'll see if anybody's alive in there.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000 January 11, Stan Sesser, “Now It's Time to Figure Out Who Caused All the Y2K Fuss”, in Wall Street Journal, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Contrary to accounts in the media, he states, \"bugs of this nature don't cause China Syndromes or missile launches, at least not generally.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A specific instance of this type of failure."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "nuclear physics",
          "nuclear physics"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "nuclear physics",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, nuclear physics, countable) A specific instance of this type of failure."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2005, Justin Lahart. \"Ahead of the Tape,\" Wall Street Journal (Eastern ed.), 6 Oct., p. C1",
          "text": "And then there is the China syndrome. […] China now represents about 20% of Korea's total trade."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A behavior, policy, or situation characteristic of or involving China; an actual or potential catastrophe, especially one involving China."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "behavior",
          "behavior"
        ],
        [
          "policy",
          "policy"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "actual",
          "actual"
        ],
        [
          "potential",
          "potential"
        ],
        [
          "catastrophe",
          "catastrophe"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "sometimes fanciful",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, countable, sometimes fanciful) A behavior, policy, or situation characteristic of or involving China; an actual or potential catastrophe, especially one involving China."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Medicine"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Pan American Health Organization, chapter I, in Poliomyelitis Eradication: Field Guide, →ISBN, page 49:",
          "text": "Unlike poliomyelitis, paralysis in China syndrome is symmetrical. In addition, cases are seasonal.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A rare disease, first characterized in the early 1990s, which resembles polio but which has somewhat different characteristics and occurs in persons vaccinated for polio."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "medicine",
          "medicine"
        ],
        [
          "rare",
          "rare"
        ],
        [
          "disease",
          "disease"
        ],
        [
          "polio",
          "polio"
        ],
        [
          "vaccinate",
          "vaccinate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(medicine) A rare disease, first characterized in the early 1990s, which resembles polio but which has somewhat different characteristics and occurs in persons vaccinated for polio."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "medicine",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-China syndrome.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/83/En-au-China_syndrome.ogg/En-au-China_syndrome.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/En-au-China_syndrome.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "China Syndrome"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "Zhōngguó zònghézhèng",
      "sense": "meltdown of a nuclear reactor",
      "word": "中國綜合症 /中国综合症"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "meltdown of a nuclear reactor",
      "word": "Kiina-ilmiö"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "meltdown of a nuclear reactor",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "syndrome chinois"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "meltdown of a nuclear reactor",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "China-Syndrom"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "meltdown of a nuclear reactor",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "sindrome cinese"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "China shindorōmu",
      "sense": "meltdown of a nuclear reactor",
      "word": "チャイナ・シンドローム"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "meltdown of a nuclear reactor",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "chiński syndrom"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "meltdown of a nuclear reactor",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "síndrome da China"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "kitájskij sindróm",
      "sense": "meltdown of a nuclear reactor",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "кита́йский синдро́м"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "The China Syndrome"
  ],
  "word": "China syndrome"
}

Download raw JSONL data for China syndrome meaning in English (8.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.