ballistic missile

1. 1.

   a missile that is guided in the first part of its flight but falls freely as it approaches target

   Broadermissile

   Narrowerintercontinental ballistic missile

Questions about ballistic missile

What does ballistic missile mean?

ballistic missile means "a missile that is guided in the first part of its flight but falls freely as it approaches target".

Is ballistic missile a common word?

ballistic missile is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.