🇬🇧 Meltdown meaning: English Vocabulary Flash Card

A meltdown is a very serious accident that can happen in a nuclear power plant. Inside the plant, there is nuclear fuel that gets very, very hot to make energy. This hot fuel is kept inside strong containers and cooling systems so it stays safe. In a meltdown, the fuel gets so hot that it starts to melt through these containers. If it breaks through and escapes, dangerous radiation can leak into the air, water, and ground. This can hurt people, animals, and the environment, which is why scientists and engineers work very hard to prevent a meltdown from ever happening.

The cartoon reactor put on sunglasses and said, “Relax, no meltdown here, I’m cooler than a snowman in a freezer.”

The safety manual had a giant picture that said, “Meltdown: The One Party Guest That Is NEVER Invited.”

In the kids’ science show, they compared a meltdown to ice cream so hot it melts through the bowl and right through the table.

The safety drill showed that if you follow all the rules, a meltdown is just a scary word in a textbook and not in real life.

Real nuclear power plants have many layers of safety systems—so many that an actual meltdown is extremely rare, like winning the lottery while being struck by a flying broccoli at the same time.

At dawn the plant siren screamed: meltdown. Workers watched a red light and whispered meltdown, faces pale. Metal hissed; hot fuel melted through its container in a slow, glowing meltdown, orange pouring on concrete. Neighbors, children and dogs screamed 'meltdown' and ran. A firefighter said, 'This is a meltdown,' then they fled.

This word is at the C2 level, which means it represents the highest mastery of English. It’s often used in specialized or highly formal contexts and helps you communicate with precision and subtlety, much like a native speaker.

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