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

Scientists suspect that this subtle rotation could be linked to hypothetical elementary particles called axions.

From Science Daily • Mar. 16, 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

Without electrical forces, there would no longer be things in the universe—merely diffuse clouds of electrons, protons and neutrons, and gravitating spheres of elementary particles, the featureless remnants of worlds.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan