Denuclearising

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Eliminating nuclear weapons or nuclear power facilities from a particular country, region, or area entirely
2. Clearing a territory of atomic arms and reactors so that no nuclear capability remains there
3. Stripping a nation or zone of its nuclear armaments and energy plants through policy or treaty action

Etymology: Denuclearising is the present participle of "denuclearise", and the verb is built by attaching the prefix "de-", meaning "remove" or "reverse", to "nuclearise". The prefix comes from Latin "dē", which carried a sense of removal, down, or away. Its meaning here is literal: to strip nuclear weapons or nuclear power from a country, region, or area. The base verb "nuclearise" follows the familiar English pattern of a noun turned into a verb with the suffix "-ise", which passed into English through Middle French from Late Latin "-izāre", itself borrowed from Ancient Greek "-ίζειν". "Nuclear" comes from Latin "nucleus", a diminutive of "nux", meaning "nut", so the physics term started as a picture of a kernel at the centre of something. The "-ing" ending turns the verb into a participle that can work as an adjective, as in "denuclearising states", or as a gerund, as in "the denuclearising of the region".

Synonyms: disarm, demilitarise

Antonyms: nuclearise, arm