How to Use kiloton in a Sentence

kiloton

noun
  • Each carries up to eight warheads of at least 100 kilotons each.
    — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 5 Mar. 2018
  • Their warheads can have a smaller impact, with a yield range that spreads from one to several hundred kilotons.
    — Kristin Ven Bruusgaard, Foreign Affairs, 6 Feb. 2023
  • Comparing this range with the graph above, this means that the Waco explosion could have been a nearly one-kiloton blast.
    — Kyle Hill, Discover Magazine, 18 Apr. 2013
  • Sunday's test comes almost one year to the day of the fifth nuclear test, which was determined to have involved a 10 kiloton bomb.
    — James Griffiths, CNN, 3 Sep. 2017
  • By comparison, the yield of the Hiroshima bomb was just 15 kilotons.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 20 May 2019
  • North Korea's previous largest was thought to be anywhere from 10 to 30 kilotons.
    — Eric Talmadge, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Sep. 2017
  • The North claims the device was made domestically and has explosive power that can range from tens to hundreds of kilotons.
    — Eric Talmadge, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Sep. 2017
  • Seismic data suggest the blast was around 120 kilotons—at least eight times more powerful than the North’s previous test a year ago.
    — The Economist, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Right now, its strongest warhead can detonate at about 20 kilotons, similar to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
    — Amanda Erickson, Washington Post, 8 July 2017
  • The official statement suggested that the test was of a device that could be adjusted to produce explosions that range between tens of kilotons and hundreds.
    — The Economist, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Oddly, the final setting of the nuke in The Strain is 15 kilotons, which the protagonists say is enough to take out a skyscraper but spare the city.
    — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 2 Apr. 2018
  • One kiloton is equivalent to the force produced in an explosion of 1,000 tons of TNT.
    — CBS News, 6 Sep. 2017
  • That's far more than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima (15 kilotons) and Nagasaki (around 20).
    — Eric Talmadge, chicagotribune.com, 3 Sep. 2017
  • That’s far more than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima (15 kilotons) and Nagasaki (around 20).
    — Eric Talmadge, The Seattle Times, 3 Sep. 2017
  • But the technique has been mostly limited to explosions more powerful than 1 kiloton of TNT.
    — Byjonathan O’Callaghan, science.org, 12 May 2023
  • Another option would drop bombs of 70 kilotons each on a wider range of military targets if North Korea attacked South Korea.
    — Fred Kaplan, Slate Magazine, 27 Sep. 2017
  • Russian officials have previously said nuclear warheads with yields of up to 50 kilotons have been developed for Iskander missiles.
    — Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 2 Jan. 2026
  • This crucial detail is what boosts a weapon of mass destruction on the order of a few dozen kilotons to something like Castle Bravo, the first US thermonuclear bomb test.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 9 Jan. 2025
  • Global stockpile The Hiroshima atomic bomb, with an explosive yield of 15 kilotons, would be considered a low-yield nuclear weapon by today’s standards.
    — Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 5 Aug. 2025
  • The global market for lithium-ion batteries is expected to rise by 13% each year, with demand reaching about 1,600 kilotons of lithium by 2026.
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 18 Aug. 2025
  • This term will be extended in five-year increments if additional licenses for at least 200 kilotons (200,000 metric tons) per year of extra capacity are signed.
    — Alexandra Harrell, Sourcing Journal, 4 Dec. 2025
  • The Hiroshima bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, was air burst 1,900 feet above the city to maximize destruction; it was later estimated to yield 15 kilotons.
    — Kurt Snibbe, Oc Register, 6 Aug. 2025
  • The Atomic Age began there with the 21-kiloton Trinity explosion on July 16, 1945.
    — Michael Goldstein, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025
  • In 1964, China detonated a 22-kiloton nuclear device at a test site in the arid northwestern Xinjiang region—and the political fallout reached Washington.
    — Mariano-Florentino CuÉllar, Foreign Affairs, 25 Sep. 2025
  • The researchers estimate that worldwide demand for rare earth minerals will increase from 91 kilotons in 2024 to 123 kilotons in 2030 and 150 kilotons in 2040.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 28 June 2026
  • The Trinity test, conducted as part of the Manhattan Project in the New Mexico desert, detonated a plutonium bomb that released the energy of 25 kilotons of TNT.
    — Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American, 11 May 2026
  • In 2021, the report said, a total of 40,976 kilotons of fossil fuels went into fashion for EU consumption and 6,625 kilotons for that of the United Kingdom.
    — Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing Journal, 7 Jan. 2026
  • While the asteroid ultimately exploded mid-air about 18 miles above the Earth, the explosion released the same amount of energy as 500 kilotons of TNT, according to The Planetary Society.
    — Toria Sheffield, PEOPLE, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Sue Dearing, a former president of the Democratic Club, will go back 80 years to the dropping of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima in 1945, with its comparatively small strength of 15 kilotons compared to today’s warheads of 475 kilotons and more.
    — Daniella Walsh, Oc Register, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Joyce Li, commodities strategist at Macquarie Group, told CNBC over email that their base case before the attacks assumed a cut to the current running capacity of approximately 20%, which amounts to roughly 800 to 900 kilotons of production loss in 2026.
    — Joseph Wilkins, CNBC, 30 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kiloton.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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