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

Protons are hadrons, meaning they are made of partons, which include quarks and the gluons that hold them together.

From Science Daily

The approach can be used to model the vacuum state before a particle collision, physical systems with extremely high densities, and beams of hadrons.

From Science Daily

To reach higher energies, physicists usually build bigger, more powerful hadron colliders that smash protons into either protons or antiprotons.

From Science Magazine

So why do they need an even larger hadron collider?

From BBC

Although it’s relatively straightforward to compute the influence of virtual photons, muons are also affected by a class of particles called hadrons—clumps of quarks bound together by gluons.

From Scientific American