CERN

American  

1. European Laboratory for Particle Physics; formerly called European Organization for Nuclear Research: an international research organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.

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CERN British  

/ sɜːn /

acronym

1. Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire; an organization of European states with a centre in Geneva for research in high-energy particle physics, now called the European Laboratory for Particle Physics

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CERN Cultural  

1. An acronym for French words meaning European Center for Nuclear Research. Supported by a consortium of European countries, CERN is an advanced scientific research institute in Geneva, Switzerland. It is one of the premier locations for particle physics research.

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Discover More

After the year 2007, CERN will be the location of the world's largest particle accelerator.

Etymology

Origin of CERN

< French, for C ( onseil ) e ( uropéen pour la ) r ( echerche ) n ( ucléaire )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

CERN

According to results reported by CERN, those experiments revealed both collective flow and jet quenching, providing additional indications that quark-gluon plasma can form in relatively small nuclear collisions.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026

After graduating in 2003, Roberts pursued a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of Southampton and studied dark matter at CERN, the Swiss nuclear research center.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

It is based on the documentary of the same name about the discovery of the Higgs boson — the “God particle” — at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

The British physicist-turned-computer scientist conceived the web in 1989 while working at CERN, the European particle physics lab in Switzerland.

From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026

A year later, at a Geneva symposium sponsored by CERN, Ernest ran into Stan Livingston.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

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