"Dead Hand" meaning in English

See Dead Hand in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

Head templates: {{en-proper noun|head=Dead Hand}} Dead Hand
  1. A weapons system, implemented by the Soviet Union and by the Russian Federation as the successor state thereof, capable of closing a strategic nuclear strike control loop in the absence of normal command and control channels, analogous in concept to a dead man's switch, in anticipation of a decapitation strike. Wikidata QID: Q907393 Synonyms: doomsday weapon, doomsday device, doomsday bomb Hypernyms: nuclear deterrent, deterrent Related terms: dead hand, deadman, fail-deadly, counterstrike
    Sense id: en-Dead_Hand-en-name-en:Q907393 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Cold War, Nuclear warfare, Russia, Soviet Union Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 78 22 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 84 16 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 75 25 Disambiguation of Cold War: 79 21 Disambiguation of Nuclear warfare: 93 7 Disambiguation of Russia: 94 6 Disambiguation of Soviet Union: 95 5
  2. Any such system, whether the cardinal instance (the Soviet/Russian one) or another.
    Sense id: en-Dead_Hand-en-name-en:Q907393_or_foreign_counterpart
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          "_dis": "78 22",
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          "_dis": "94 6",
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        {
          "text": "Near-synonyms: doomsday weapon, doomsday device, doomsday bomb"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              40,
              49
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Sometimes people glibly speak as if the Dead Hand were a thing of the past, but it is foolhardy to assume so.",
          "type": "example"
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        {
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            [
              159,
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          "ref": "2009 September 21, Nicholas Thompson, “Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine”, in Wired, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The system may no longer be a central element of Russian strategy—US-based Russian arms expert Pavel Podvig calls it now \"just another cog in the machine\"—but Dead Hand is still armed.",
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        "A weapons system, implemented by the Soviet Union and by the Russian Federation as the successor state thereof, capable of closing a strategic nuclear strike control loop in the absence of normal command and control channels, analogous in concept to a dead man's switch, in anticipation of a decapitation strike."
      ],
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          "Russian Federation",
          "Russian Federation"
        ],
        [
          "command and control",
          "command and control"
        ],
        [
          "dead man's switch",
          "dead man's switch"
        ],
        [
          "decapitation strike",
          "decapitation strike"
        ]
      ],
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        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
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        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
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          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "word": "fail-deadly"
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          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "word": "counterstrike"
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        "Any such system, whether the cardinal instance (the Soviet/Russian one) or another."
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  "word": "Dead Hand"
}
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  "pos": "name",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "dead hand"
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    {
      "word": "fail-deadly"
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      "word": "counterstrike"
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              40,
              49
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          "type": "example"
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              159,
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          "text": "The system may no longer be a central element of Russian strategy—US-based Russian arms expert Pavel Podvig calls it now \"just another cog in the machine\"—but Dead Hand is still armed.",
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        "A weapons system, implemented by the Soviet Union and by the Russian Federation as the successor state thereof, capable of closing a strategic nuclear strike control loop in the absence of normal command and control channels, analogous in concept to a dead man's switch, in anticipation of a decapitation strike."
      ],
      "hypernyms": [
        {
          "word": "nuclear deterrent"
        },
        {
          "word": "deterrent"
        }
      ],
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          "Soviet Union",
          "Soviet Union"
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          "Russian Federation"
        ],
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          "command and control",
          "command and control"
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          "word": "doomsday weapon"
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          "word": "doomsday device"
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          "word": "doomsday bomb"
        }
      ],
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  "word": "Dead Hand"
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). 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.

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