Radiation is energy transmitted in waves or a stream of particles. The first thing you think of as radiation is probably X-rays, but what cooks your food in the microwave oven is also radiation.
Radiation has some important medical uses, especially in the treatment of cancer, as "radiation therapy." It’s also associated with such horrors as "radiation sickness" — observed in people exposed to high levels of radiation, as in the aftermath of the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, in the Ukraine. You can also use the word radiation, in more benign contexts, to describe something spreading out from a central point, as the radiation of warmth from your fireplace.
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the act of spreading outward from a central source
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energy that is radiated or transmitted in the form of rays or waves or particles
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syndrome resulting from exposure to ionizing radiation (e.g., exposure to radioactive chemicals or to nuclear explosions); low doses cause diarrhea and nausea and vomiting and sometimes loss of hair; greater exposure can cause sterility and cataracts and some forms of cancer and other diseases; severe exposure can cause death within hours
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