PARTICLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does particle mean? 

• PARTICLE (noun)
  The noun PARTICLE has 3 senses:

1. (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything

2. a body having finite mass and internal structure but negligible dimensions

3. a function word that can be used in English to form phrasal verbs

  Familiarity information: PARTICLE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PARTICLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

atom; corpuscle; molecule; mote; particle; speck

Hypernyms ("particle" is a kind of...):

material; stuff (the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "particle"):

grain (a relatively small granular particle of a substance)

grinding (material resulting from the process of grinding)

chylomicron (a microscopic particle of triglycerides produced in the intestines during digestion; in the bloodstream they release their fatty acids into the blood)

flyspeck (a tiny dark speck made by the excrement of a fly)

identification particle (a tiny particle of material that can be added to a product to indicate the source of manufacture)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A body having finite mass and internal structure but negligible dimensions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

particle; subatomic particle

Hypernyms ("particle" is a kind of...):

body (an individual 3-dimensional object that has mass and that is distinguishable from other objects)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "particle"):

alpha particle (a positively charged particle that is the nucleus of the helium atom; emitted from natural or radioactive isotopes)

thermion (an electrically charged particle (electron or ion) emitted by a substance at a high temperature)

superstring (a hypothetical particle that is the elementary particle in a theory of space-time)

scintilla (a sparkling glittering particle)

virino ((microbiology) a hypothetical infectious particle thought to be the cause of scrapie and other degenerative diseases of the central nervous system; consists of nucleic acid in a protective coat of host cell proteins)

prion ((microbiology) an infectious protein particle similar to a virus but lacking nucleic acid; thought to be the agent responsible for scrapie and other degenerative diseases of the nervous system)

micelle (an electrically charged particle built up from polymeric molecules or ions and occurring in certain colloidal electrolytic solutions like soaps and detergents)

magnetic monopole (a hypothetical particle with a single magnetic pole instead of the usual two)

ion (a particle that is electrically charged (positive or negative); an atom or molecule or group that has lost or gained one or more electrons)

fermion (any particle that obeys Fermi-Dirac statistics and is subject to the Pauli exclusion principle)

elementary particle; fundamental particle ((physics) a particle that is less complex than an atom; regarded as constituents of all matter)

deuteron (the nucleus of deuterium; consists of one proton and one neutron; used as a bombarding particle in accelerators)

boson (any particle that obeys Bose-Einstein statistics but not the Pauli exclusion principle; all nuclei with an even mass number are bosons)

beta particle (a high-speed electron or positron emitted in the decay of a radioactive isotope)

virion ((virology) a complete viral particle; nucleic acid and capsid (and a lipid envelope in some viruses))

Sense 3

Meaning:

A function word that can be used in English to form phrasal verbs

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("particle" is a kind of...):

closed-class word; function word (a word that is uninflected and serves a grammatical function but has little identifiable meaning)

 Context examples 

A tiny particle made of substances that are soluble in water and that come together to form a ball-like shape.

(Micelle, NCI Dictionary)

A traditional unit of length defined as the number of opening per inch of a screen, e.g. the number of strands or particles per inch.

(Mesh, NCI Thesaurus)

A unit for virus amount measurement that represents a number of viral particles (live and dead combined) expressed in millions.

(Million Viral Particles, NCI Thesaurus)

The science of simulating the motions of a system of particles.

(Molecular Dynamics, NCI Thesaurus)

Previously, in layers this thick, the particles were unable to travel far enough to reach the surfaces.

(Plastic crystals hold key to record-breaking energy transport, Universities of Cambridge)

These TNF-gold particles may kill cancer cells without harming healthy tissue.

(Aurimmune, NCI Dictionary)

A substance that makes particles (such as bacteria or cells) stick together to form a clump or a mass.

(Agglutinin, NCI Dictionary)

When inhaled, these particles are likely to reach deeply into the lungs.

(Airborne Particulate Matter, NCI Thesaurus)

If the particles enter those storm clouds they will precipitate with the rain.

(Australian bushfire smoke drifts to South America, SciDev.Net)

This allele, which encodes apolipoprotein B-100 protein, is involved in both transport and cellular binding of lipoprotein particles.

(APOB wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)