axis of evil

English

Etymology

First used by President George W. Bush in the State of the Union Address in 2002 . Possibly from a historical analogy to the German-Italian-Japanese Axis. Extended to astrophysics by João Magueijo in 2005.

Noun

axis of evil (plural axes of evil)

  1. A group of states accused by George W. Bush of sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction, originally defined as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.
  2. (astrophysics, cosmology) An anomaly in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background as the result of a preferential axis which may have shaped the development of the universe, sometimes abbreviated AOE.

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See also

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