Definition of "chain reaction" []

• A series of events in which each induces or influences the next. (noun)
• Physics A multistage nuclear reaction, especially a self-sustaining series of fissions in which the release of neutrons from the splitting of one atom leads to the splitting of others. (noun)
• Chemistry A series of reactions in which one product of a reacting set is a reactant in the following set. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Kuran and Sunstein defined the term as a “self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation by which an expressed perception triggers a chain reaction that gives the perception increasing plausibility through its rising availability in public discourse.”"
• "The test had been the fast version, the polymerase chain reaction test, but it was still virtually conclusive; the odds were about six thousand to one that the body in front of them was Stephen Kall."
• "As part of its work, the research team used a highly sensitive technique that relied on something called a polymerase chain reaction PCR."