reactor

From react +‎ -or.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɹiˈæktɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹiːˈæktə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -æktə(ɹ)
• Homophone: reacter

reactor (plural reactors)

1. A person who responds to a suggestion, stimulation or other influence.

   Synonym: reacter

   Hyponym: respondent

   • 1983 December 31, Michael Bronski, “A Sharply Focused Film”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 17:

     Altman seees his characters as total reactors; everything they do and say is in response to their environment. They do not seem to exist with lives or qualities of their own.

2. (chemistry, engineering) A structure used to contain chemical or other reactions.

   Hyponyms: bioreactor, chemical reactor

3. (nuclear physics) A device which uses atomic energy to produce heat.

   Synonyms: nuclear reactor, atomic reactor

   Hyponyms: boiling water reactor, breeder reactor, fast reactor, fast-breeder reactor, fast-neutron reactor, fission reactor, fusion reactor, hot reactor, pebble-bed reactor, pressurized water reactor, reactor scram, saturable reactor, light water reactor

   • 1972, Robert L Pfaltzgraff, Politics and the international system:

     It limits the rights of nonweapon countries to develop an export business in civilian reactor technology.

   • 2023 July 18, Joe Middleton, “Shapps announces £157m in grants at launch of new UK nuclear body”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     It is hoped that a competition to develop small modular reactors (SMRs) will drive billions of pounds of investment into the technology, which the government hopes will be cheaper and quicker to build than traditional large nuclear power plants.

   • 2025 March 4, John Fritze, “Supreme Court wades into decades-old impasse over how to store nuclear waste”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     The second is whether the federal agency has the power to license such facilities away from reactor sites where the waste was generated. […] The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled the NRC does not have the authority to issue licenses to store nuclear fuel away from reactors.

4. (chemistry) A chemical substance which responds to the presence of, or contact with, another substance.
5. (electronics) An electrical component with reactance

   Hyponyms: capacitor, inductor

• Carreto, Cerrato, Creator, acroter, creator

Borrowed from English reactor.

• IPA^(key): /ˌreːˈɑk.tɔr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧ac‧tor

reactor m (plural reactoren or reactors)

1. atomic reactor
2. chemical reactor

reactor m (plural reactores)

1. Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1990 in Portugal) of reator. Still used in countries where the agreement hasn't come into effect; may occur as a sporadic misspelling.

Borrowed from French réacteur.

reactor n (plural reactoare)

1. reactor

• IPA^(key): /reaɡˈtoɾ/ [re.aɣ̞ˈt̪oɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: re‧ac‧tor

reactor m (plural reactores)

1. jet engine
2. rocket engine
3. atomic reactor
4. chemical reactor

• “reactor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024