Curie

Cu·rie  (kyr, ky-r, kü-) also Cu·rie-Jo·liot (-zhô-ly), Irène

See Irène Joliot-Curie.

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cu·rie  (kyr, ky-r)

n. Abbr. Ci

A unit of radioactivity, equal to the amount of a radioactive isotope that decays at the rate of 3.7 × 10¹⁰ disintegrations per second.

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[After Pierre Curie.]

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curie

Noun

the standard unit of radioactivity [after Pierre Curie, French physicist]

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curie  (kyr, ky-r)

A unit used to measure the rate of radioactive decay. Radioactive decay is measured by the rate at which the atoms making up a radioactive substance are transformed into different atoms. One curie is equal to 37 billion (3.7 × 10¹⁰) of these transformations per second. Many scientists now measure radioactive decay in becquerels rather than curies.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	curie - a unit of radioactivity equal to the amount of a radioactive isotope that decays at the rate of 37,000,000,000 disintegrations per second Ci radioactivity unit - a measure of radioactivity millicurie - a unit of radioactivity equal to one thousandth of a curie
	2.	Curie - French physicist; husband of Marie Curie (1859-1906) Pierre Curie
	3.	Curie - French chemist (born in Poland) who won two Nobel prizes; one (with her husband and Henri Becquerel) for research on radioactivity and another for her discovery of radium and polonium (1867-1934) Madame Curie, Marie Curie, Marya Sklodowska