ALL meanings of half-life
half-life
H h - noun plural half-life Physics. the time required for one half the atoms of a given amount of a radioactive substance to disintegrate. 1
- noun plural half-life Also called biological half-life. Pharmacology. the time required for the activity of a substance taken into the body to lose one half its initial effectiveness. 1
- noun plural half-life Informal. a brief period during which something flourishes before dying out. 1
- noun half-life time taken for sth to decrease by half 1
- noun half-life finance: time taken for half of principal to be repaid 1
- countable noun half-life The half-life of a radioactive substance is the amount of time that it takes to lose half its radioactivity. 0
- noun half-life the time taken for half of the atoms in a radioactive material to undergo decay 0
- noun half-life the time required for half of a quantity of radioactive material absorbed by a living tissue or organism to be naturally eliminated (biological half-life) or removed by both elimination and decay (effective half-life) 0
- noun half-life the constant time period required for the disintegration of half of the atoms in a sample of some specific radioactive substance 0