How to Use polonium in a Sentence

polonium

noun
  • Berezovsky sings a vaudeville number; the origins of polonium are outlined in verse.
    — The Economist, 5 Sep. 2019
  • Researchers soon learned that polonium could be used in these experiments instead.
    — New York Times, 28 Aug. 2019
  • British police also found traces of radioactive polonium at his home in north London, a sushi bar, and the hotel.
    — Flora Carr, Time, 6 Mar. 2018
  • He was killed in 2006 after drinking a cup of tea that had been laced with the deadly radioactive metal, polonium.
    — Siladitya Ray, Forbes, 21 Sep. 2021
  • The use of a nerve agent fits a pattern established by the murder of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium in 2006.
    — John Lough and James Sherr, Time, 14 Mar. 2018
  • In 1911 Curie won her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, for her work with polonium and radium.
    — Mark Barna, Discover Magazine, 16 Dec. 2022
  • Some other elements in nature with no stable isotope are technetium, polonium, actinium and uranium.
    — Kelling Donald, The Conversation, 13 Oct. 2025
  • British forensic scientists were ultimately able to determine which Russian reactor the polonium had come from.
    — Tom Tugendhat, Time, 15 Mar. 2018
  • The couple discovered polonium (named after Marie’s homeland, the Kingdom of Poland) and radium within a few months.
    — Peter Aitken, Fox News, 16 Mar. 2021
  • Marie Curie was a Polish scientist who discovered both polonium and radium, and coined the term radioactivity.
    — Rebecca Norris, Woman's Day, 27 Jan. 2023
  • This included traces of dangerous elements such as polonium, radium, and lead-210.
    — Justin Klawans, The Week, 17 Oct. 2022
  • The defector Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium, in 2006.
    — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 20 Aug. 2020
  • The killers of Alexander Litvinenko, who died of polonium poisoning in 2006, left a trail of radiation across London.
    — The Economist, 5 July 2018
  • It’s quickly converted to polonium, another radioactive element, which can attach to dust particles before being deposited in lungs.
    — Beth Nakamura, The Oregonian - OregonLive.com, 22 Nov. 2019
  • Litvinenko, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, was fatally poisoned with polonium in 2006 in London.
    — Benjamin Hart, Daily Intelligencer, 6 Mar. 2018
  • But Kate’s Terminator resemblance also includes her left eye’s red and distended pupil, evidence of the polonium poisoning that will kill her in 24 hours.
    — Amy Nicholson, Variety, 3 Sep. 2021
  • This attribution issue offers tactical advantages for the Kremlin such as letting Russia make mischief in ways that are even more subtle than its assassins' signature polonium tea.
    — Robert Hackett, Fortune, 8 July 2017
  • So Soviet engineers who worked on military tanks contributed to the design of the chassis, while nuclear specialists provided a heater fueled by highly radioactive polonium.
    — Anatoly Zak, Popular Mechanics, 18 July 2021
  • Her accomplishments included the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, and conducting the first studies into the treatment of cancer using radiation.
    — Tyler Aquilina, EW.com, 10 July 2020
  • The incident has drawn parallels to the death of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium 11 years ago in London.
    — Daniel Arkin, NBC News, 8 Mar. 2018
  • The incident has uncomfortable echoes of the case of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian ex-spy who was murdered in 2006 after his tea was spiked with radioactive polonium.
    — Robert Hutton, Bloomberg.com, 7 Mar. 2018
  • Partners in life and in science, the couple’s fruitful work together produced the discovery of the elements polonium and radium in 1898, as well as radioactivity itself.
    — Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 14 Feb. 2023
  • Russia has used the deadly chemical polonium and a military-grade nerve agent against former security-service officers living in Britain, and gunned down a former insurgent from Chechnya in a Berlin park.
    — Ned Temko, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Dec. 2020
  • Marie Curie was a Nobel-prize-winning French physicist who discovered polonium and radium — later leading to the development of X-rays and the establishment of radiation therapy for cancer.
    — Joanna Dutra, Forbes, 26 Oct. 2021
  • In 2006, Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko died after being poisoned with polonium in England.
    — Terrell Jermaine Starr, The Root, 17 Mar. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'polonium.' 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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