radiation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the treatment of disease, especially cancer, by exposure to a radioactive substance

   The radiation caused the cancer to enter remission.

2. 2
   noun

   The shooting forth of anything from a point or surface, like diverging rays of light.

   The radiation of love from the crowd was addictive to the young singer-songwriters.

3. 3
   noun

   Radioactive energy.

   It's Christmas at ground zero / And if the radiation level's OK / I'll go out with you / To see all the new / Mutations on New Year's Day

4. 4
   noun

   A rapid diversification of an ancestral species into many new forms.

   So the question is: have plants and animals retained over this huge amount of time—whole radiations of mammals have come and gone in this period—have they retained these potentially costly characteristics?

5. 5
   noun

   the act of spreading outward from a central source

6. 6
   noun

   a radial arrangement of nerve fibers connecting different parts of the brain

7. 7
   noun

   the spread of a group of organisms into new habitats

8. 8
   noun

   energy that is radiated or transmitted in the form of rays or waves or particles

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin radiatio, radiationis. By surface analysis, radiate + -ion.