elementary particle

noun

: any of the particles of which matter and energy are composed or which mediate the fundamental forces of nature

especially : one whose existence has not been attributed to the combination of other more fundamental entities

Examples of elementary particle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Panpsychism may remain a controversial theory in science that contends that consciousness extends to everything in the universe down to the smallest elementary particle, but Pollini’s playing has something to say about it. —Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2024

Lily Asquith, a physicist searching for the Higgs boson--the elementary particle believed to give everything in the universe mass--is using more than her eyes. —Joseph Calamia, Discover Magazine, 20 May 2010

Voids could even help to nail down the nature of —elementary particles, once thought to be massless, that pervade the universe while barely interacting with ordinary matter. —Michael D. Lemonick, Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2024

The standard model of elementary particles, including anti-particles. —Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 24 Mar. 2023

Strings also appear in the way the strong force acts among quarks, which are the elementary particles that make up a proton. —Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine, 18 Apr. 2023

Alternatively, dark matter may consist of some possible elementary particles known as QCD axions that are extremely lightweight. —Kat Friedrich, Popular Mechanics, 10 Mar. 2023

Instead, it was first used to explain how protons and neutrons are made of elementary particles called quarks and gluons. —WIRED, 10 Aug. 2023

Viewed from afar, as if through a telescope, a black hole should behave like a planet, a star, or any other conglomerate of elementary particles. —Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 2 Aug. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1934, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

elementary particle

noun

: any of the particles (as electrons or photons) of matter and energy that are smaller than atoms and do not appear to be made up of a combination of more basic things

Medical Definition

elementary particle

noun

1

: any of the particles of which matter and energy are composed or which mediate the fundamental forces of nature

especially : one (as the photon or the electron) whose existence has not been attributed to the combination of other more fundamental entities

2

: one of the structural units of mitochondrial cristae that are observable by the electron microscope usually as spheres or stalked spheres and are probably the seat of fundamental energy-producing reactions