elementary particles

Cultural  

1. The particles that make up the atom. The elementary particles include electrons and a large number of particles, including protons and neutrons, that exist inside the nucleus of atoms. Strictly speaking, the term elementary as applied to most of the particles in the nucleus is inaccurate, for scientists now believe that all the particles except electrons are made of still more elementary particles called quarks.

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The study of elementary particles is one of the frontiers of modern physics and is associated with the building of particle accelerators.

Example Sentences

In its first moments, the universe was a seething soup of elementary particles and energetic photons that would destroy any atom before it could form.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026

The Nobel committee praised "their penetrating investigation... which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles".

From BBC • Oct. 18, 2025

Finally elementary particles are protons, electrons, neutrons and all other particles that are smaller than an atom.

From Salon • Nov. 13, 2024

Wigner realized that using principles derived from Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, he could describe all the possible elementary particles in the universe, even those that hadn't been discovered yet.

From Science Daily • May 23, 2024

So the question is: what are the truly elementary particles, the basic building blocks from which everything is made?

From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking