Nobel Prize

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Any of the six international prizes awarded annually by the Nobel Foundation for outstanding achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and economics and for the promotion of world peace.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun Prizes for the encouragement of men and women who work for the interests of humanity, established by the will of Alfred B. Nobel (1833-1896), the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who left his entire estate for this purpose. They are awarded yearly for what is regarded as the most important work during the year in physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, idealistic literature, and service in the interest of peace. The prizes, averaging $40,000 each, were first awarded in 1901. The monetary value of the awards have increased each year, to near one million U. S. dollars by the end of the 20th century.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Any of the international prizes awarded annually by the Nobel Foundation for outstanding achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for the promotion of world peace; or the prize in economics awarded by the Swedish National Bank, in memorial of Alfred Nobel.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an annual award for outstanding contributions to chemistry or physics or physiology and medicine or literature or economics or peace