baryon

noun

bary·​on ˈber-ē-ˌän How to pronounce baryon (audio)
ˈba-rē-
: any of a group of subatomic particles (such as nucleons) that are subject to the strong force and are composed of three quarks
baryonic adjective

Examples of baryon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Some of it would be in the form of baryons, meaning protons and neutrons—the stuff of you, me and our laptops, as well as of planets, galaxies and everything else accessible to telescopes. Richard Panek, Scientific American, 14 Nov. 2023 This sparked the missing baryon problem. Popular Science, 31 May 2020 So, a doubly-charmed baryon is a particle made from two charm quarks and one up quark. Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 3 Nov. 2017 The discovery, reported in Nature this week, came during the course of an experiment aimed at making a doubly charmed baryon. Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 3 Nov. 2017 Three quarks are called a baryon, and consist of a red, blue, and green quark, or an antired, antigreen, and antiblue quark. Elizabeth Fernandez, Forbes, 19 Sep. 2021 Astronomers expected these hot baryons to conform to a cosmic superstructure, one made of invisible dark matter, that spanned the immense voids between galaxies. Quanta Magazine, 10 Sep. 2018 The lightest pentaquark has a mass just below the sum of a particular baryon and meson that together contain the correct quark ingredients. Adrian Cho, Science | AAAS, 5 June 2019 By a conventional Standard Model process, the antilepton excess would then have cascaded into a one-part-per-billion excess of baryons (protons and neutrons) over antibaryons. Quanta Magazine, 15 Oct. 2013

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'baryon.' 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

Greek barýs "heavy" + -on entry 2 — more at grieve

First Known Use

1953, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of baryon was in 1953

Dictionary Entries Near baryon

Cite this Entry

“Baryon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/baryon. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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