SUPERSONIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does supersonic mean? 

• SUPERSONIC (adjective)
  The adjective SUPERSONIC has 2 senses:

1. (of speed) greater than the speed of sound in a given medium (especially air)

2. having frequencies above those of audible sound

  Familiarity information: SUPERSONIC used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUPERSONIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of speed) greater than the speed of sound in a given medium (especially air)

Context example:

a supersonic bomber flies so fast that it must release its bombs while the target is still over the horizon

Antonym:

sonic ((of speed) having or caused by speed approximately equal to that of sound in air at sea level)

subsonic ((of speed) less than that of sound in a designated medium)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having frequencies above those of audible sound

Synonyms:

supersonic; ultrasonic

Similar:

inaudible; unhearable (impossible to hear; imperceptible by the ear)

 Context examples 

The LBFD X-plane will be flown over communities to collect data necessary for regulators to enable supersonic flight over land in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

(NASA Completes Milestone Toward Quieter Supersonic X-Plane, NASA)

Magnetospheres are the result of a collision between a planet's intrinsic magnetic field and the supersonic solar wind.

(Juno Peers Inside a Giant, NASA)

Typically, magnetospheres are shaped by the pressure of supersonic solar wind particles flowing past them.

(Fresh Results from NASA’s Galileo Spacecraft 20 Years On, NASA)

"Planets have a bow shock the same way a supersonic jet does," said Vadim Uritsky at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

(Messenger spots giant space weather effects at Mercury, NASA)

The team used a modern version of a 150-year-old German photography technique called Schlieren imaging to show shock waves streaming from jets flying at supersonic speeds.

(Seeing Shock Waves, EARTH OBSERVATORY)

Since much of the material being flung out from the shattered star has been heated by shock waves − similar to sonic booms from supersonic planes − passing through it, the remnant glows strongly in X-ray light.

(Chandra Movie Captures Expanding Debris from a Stellar Explosion, NASA)

Last month, a scale model of the QueSST design completed testing in the 8-by 6-foot supersonic wind tunnel at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

(NASA Completes Milestone Toward Quieter Supersonic X-Plane, NASA)

If you have ever heard a clap of thunder, the boom of fireworks, or the roar of a supersonic jet, you already know how shock waves sound.

(Seeing Shock Waves, EARTH OBSERVATORY)

NASA has achieved a significant milestone in its effort to make supersonic passenger jet travel over land a real possibility by completing the preliminary design review (PDR) of its Quiet Supersonic Transport or QueSST aircraft design.

(NASA Completes Milestone Toward Quieter Supersonic X-Plane, NASA)

Senior experts and engineers from across the agency and the Lockheed Martin Corporation concluded Friday that the QueSST design is capable of fulfilling the LBFD aircraft’s mission objectives, which are to fly at supersonic speeds, but create a soft thump instead of the disruptive sonic boom associated with supersonic flight today.

(NASA Completes Milestone Toward Quieter Supersonic X-Plane, NASA)