mutual assured destruction

English

Alternative forms

• mutually assured destruction

Noun

mutual assured destruction (uncountable)

1. (politics, public policy, military) The threat of massive retaliation using nuclear weapons should a potential enemy use them first, both sides being annihilated in the event of war.

Usage notes

• Google searches (3 April 2009) suggest that the two forms of this expression—mutually assured destruction and mutual assured destruction—are roughly equally popular in academic journals and books, but that mutually assured destruction is the favored form in general web usage and in news sources.

Synonyms

• MAD

Derived terms

• assured destruction

Translations

threat

• Arabic: دمار متبادل
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 相互保證毀滅／相互保证毁灭 (zh) (xiānghù bǎozhèng huǐmiè)

• Dutch: gegarandeerde wederzijdse vernietiging f
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: molemminpuolinen varmistettu tuho
• French: destruction mutuelle assurée f
• German: Gleichgewicht des Schreckens n
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 상호확증파괴(相互確證破壞) (sanghohwakjeungpagoe)
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: wzajemne zagwarantowane zniszczenie n
• Romanian: distrugere reciprocă asigurată f
• Russian: взаимное гарантированное уничтожение (vzaimnoje garantirovannoje uničtoženije)
• Spanish: destrucción mutua asegurada
• Turkish: karşılıklı kesin yıkım
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: đảm bảo phá huỷ lẫn nhau

See also

• eye for an eye
• internecine
• Kilkenny cat