fundamental particle

noun

Examples of fundamental particle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web In the very beginning, the universe was searing plasma, a soup of fundamental particles and energy. Quanta Magazine, 19 Jan. 2024 After decades of theoretical prediction were borne out by the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, which confirmed how other particles get their mass, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has failed to find any other new fundamental particles. Daniel Garisto, Scientific American, 13 Dec. 2023 Science does deal with things that can’t be observed, such as fundamental particles, quantum wave functions, maybe even other universes. Philip Goff, Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2023 Around that time, physicists trying to devise theories that unified the forces of nature started toying with the idea that fundamental particles such as electrons are in reality composed of exceedingly tiny vibrating strings. Steve Nadis, Quanta Magazine, 16 Oct. 2023 String theory replaces all the fundamental particles of nature with tiny, vibrating strings. Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2017 Physicists know that for every fundamental particle in nature there is an antiparticle — an evil twin of identical mass but endowed with equal and opposite characteristics like charge and spin. Dennis Overbye, New York Times, 27 Sep. 2023 In fact, beta particles are electrons—the fundamental particles with a negative charge. WIRED, 8 Sep. 2023 The Standard Model explains these fundamental particles and three of the four forces. Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics, 15 Aug. 2023

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

Word History

First Known Use

1901, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of fundamental particle was in 1901

Dictionary Entries Near fundamental particle

Cite this Entry

“Fundamental particle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fundamental%20particle. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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