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Synonyms

particle

American  
[pahr-ti-kuhl] / ˈpɑr tɪ kəl /

noun

  1. a minute portion, piece, fragment, or amount; a tiny or very small bit.

    a particle of dust; not a particle of supporting evidence.

    Synonyms:
    speck, grain, tittle, jot, iota, whit, mite
  2. Physics.

    1. one of the extremely small constituents of matter, as an atom or nucleus.

    2. an elementary particle, quark, or gluon.

    3. a body in which the internal motion is negligible.

  3. a clause or article, as of a document.

  4. Grammar.

    1. (in some languages) one of the major form classes, or parts of speech, consisting of words that are neither nouns nor verbs, or of all uninflected words, or the like.

    2. such a word.

    3. a small word of functional or relational use, as an article, preposition, or conjunction, whether of a separate form class or not.

  5. Roman Catholic Church. a small piece of the Host given to each lay communicant in a Eucharistic service.


particle British  
/ ˈpɑːtɪkəl /

noun

  1. an extremely small piece of matter; speck

  2. a very tiny amount; iota

    it doesn't make a particle of difference

  3. a function word, esp (in certain languages) a word belonging to an uninflected class having suprasegmental or grammatical function

    the Greek particles ``mēn'' and ``de'' are used to express contrast

    questions in Japanese are indicated by the particle ``ka''

    English ``up'' is sometimes regarded as an adverbial particle

  4. a common affix, such as re-, un-, or -ness

  5. physics a body with finite mass that can be treated as having negligible size, and internal structure

  6. See elementary particle

  7. RC Church a small piece broken off from the Host at Mass

  8. archaic a section or clause of a document

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

particle Scientific  
/ pärtĭ-kəl /
  1. A very small piece of solid matter.

  2. An elementary particle, subatomic particle, or atomic nucleus.

  3. Also called corpuscle


Other Word Forms

  • interparticle adjective
  • particled adjective

Etymology

Origin of particle

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Latin word particula. See part, -i-, -cle 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Scientists at NYU have developed a way to use light to guide how microscopic particles arrange themselves into crystals.

From Science Daily

By adding a grain transport component, the researchers could trace the journeys of icy particles and reconstruct the physical and chemical history of the material that formed Europa, Ganymede, Callisto and Io.

From Science Daily

Photons, which are particles of light, have no electric charge and therefore do not naturally react to those forces.

From Science Daily

Back in New Jersey, Venkatesh Chinni, a postdoctoral scholar and lead author of the study, measured iron concentrations in the samples, analyzing both dissolved iron and iron attached to suspended particles.

From Science Daily

It acts as a protective barrier, shielding us from harmful cosmic radiation and charged particles streaming from the Sun.

From Science Daily