: any of several elementary particles that are postulated to come in pairs (as in the up and down varieties) of similar mass with one member having a charge of +²/₃ and the other a charge of −¹/₃ and are held to make up hadrons

Examples of quark in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Researchers might be able to confirm this possibility by making complementary measurements of EDMs in other particles built from quarks where the coupling is likely to be different. Luke Caldwell, Scientific American, 16 Jan. 2024 Their efforts have led to the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes the most fundamental ingredients of matter (leptons and quarks) and the forces that control them (the electromagnetic, strong and weak forces). Daniel Garisto, Scientific American, 13 Dec. 2023 Understand quarks, the thinking goes, and everything else follows. Adam Frank, Discover Magazine, 12 July 2023 Because protons are messy bags of smaller particles known as quarks and gluons, smashing them together releases only a fraction of the proton’s total energy. Katrina Miller, New York Times, 7 Dec. 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 Separate a quark from its antiquark, and a string forms between them that pulls them back together. Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine, 18 Apr. 2023 Forte — the lead author of a paper published earlier this month in the journal Nature, describing the research — and his team set out to discover if the lightest of these heavier quarks, the charm quark, is present in the proton. Robert Lea, Popular Mechanics, 30 Aug. 2022 Figuring out where its mass lives would be difficult even without the fact that the analogy with bicycles completely falls apart due to one awkward fact: A proton weighs much more than its component quarks, and the gluons that hold the quarks together are massless. John Timmer, Ars Technica, 3 Apr. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'quark.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

coined by Murray Gell-Mann

First Known Use

1964, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of quark was in 1964

Dictionary Entries Near quark

Cite this Entry

“Quark.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quark. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

quark

noun
: any of several particles that are believed to be components of heavier particles (as protons or neutrons)

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