hadron

American  

[had-ron] / ˈhæd rɒn /

noun

Physics.

1. any elementary particle that is subject to the strong interaction. Hadrons are subdivided into baryons and mesons.

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hadron British  

/ ˈhædrɒn /

noun

1. any elementary particle capable of taking part in a strong nuclear interaction and therefore excluding leptons and photons

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hadron Scientific  

/ hăd′rŏn′ /

1. Any of a class of subatomic particles composed of a combination of two or more quarks or antiquarks. Quarks (and antiquarks) of different colors are held together in hadrons by the strong nuclear force. Hadrons include both baryons (composed of three quarks or three antiquarks) and mesons (composed of a quark and an antiquark). The combination of quark colors in a hadron must be neutral, for example, red and antired (as in a pion) or red, blue, and green (as in a proton).

2. Compare baryon lepton

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Other Word Forms

• hadronic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of hadron

1962; < Greek hadr ( ós ) thick, bulky + -on ¹

Example Sentences

The particle carried about 100,000 times more energy than anything ever produced by the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth.

From Science Daily • Apr. 8, 2026

To chase them down, the Large Hadron Collider sends particles whizzing around an underground ring at phenomenal speeds until they smash into each other.

From Barron's • Mar. 17, 2026

However, in more than 10 years of observations there has been no evidence to support this idea, even using the Large Hadron Collider as some had hoped.

From Salon • Dec. 26, 2024

Eventually, the world’s biggest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, blasted some of those bosons into fleeting existence, cementing Higgs’s explanation of how fundamental particles get mass.

From Science Magazine • Apr. 10, 2024

Emmanuel is unaware that the Large Hadron Collider is active.

From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson