particle

American  

[pahr-ti-kuhl] / ˈpɑr tɪ kəl /

noun

• particles
  plural

1. a minute portion, piece, fragment, or amount; a tiny or very small bit.

   a particle of dust; not a particle of supporting evidence.

   Synonyms:

   speck, grain, tittle, jot, iota, whit, mite

2. Physics.

   1. one of the extremely small constituents of matter, as an atom or nucleus.

   2. an elementary particle, quark, or gluon.

   3. a body in which the internal motion is negligible.

3. a clause or article, as of a document.

4. Grammar.

   1. (in some languages) one of the major form classes, or parts of speech, consisting of words that are neither nouns nor verbs, or of all uninflected words, or the like.

   2. such a word.

   3. a small word of functional or relational use, as an article, preposition, or conjunction, whether of a separate form class or not.

5. Roman Catholic Church. a small piece of the Host given to each lay communicant in a Eucharistic service.

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particle British  

/ ˈpɑːtɪkəl /

noun

1. an extremely small piece of matter; speck

2. a very tiny amount; iota

   it doesn't make a particle of difference

3. a function word, esp (in certain languages) a word belonging to an uninflected class having suprasegmental or grammatical function

   the Greek particles ``mēn'' and ``de'' are used to express contrast

   questions in Japanese are indicated by the particle ``ka''

   English ``up'' is sometimes regarded as an adverbial particle

4. a common affix, such as re-, un-, or -ness

5. physics a body with finite mass that can be treated as having negligible size, and internal structure

6. See elementary particle

7. RC Church a small piece broken off from the Host at Mass

8. archaic a section or clause of a document

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particle Scientific  

/ pär′tĭ-kəl /

1. A very small piece of solid matter.

2. An elementary particle, subatomic particle, or atomic nucleus.

3. Also called corpuscle

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• interparticle
  adjective
• particled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• particles
  plural

Etymology

Origin of particle

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Latin word particula. See part, -i-, -cle ¹

Explanation

A particle is a small piece of anything. Particle can also refer to a subatomic particle with mass and structure, but takes up hardly any space at all. Particles are tiny. If you mean a subatomic particle, that's a body that you can't see because it is so incredibly small, though it does have a miniscule mass and internal structure. These particles are even smaller than atoms. You can also say a crumb or speck of something is a particle. Dust particles are piling up all the time, and vacuuming cleans up lots of particles. Those particles are little bits of things. In both cases, particles are very tiny.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

particle particles

Researchers recorded a single particle interaction that has proven difficult to explain using known background signals produced by ordinary matter.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

To search for dark matter, LZ uses extremely sensitive light detectors to capture particle interactions.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

With planets this dim, the telescope may receive only a single particle of light once every minute.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

The Canadian goods facing new 50% U.S. tariffs as of early Saturday include construction materials such as cement, paints, plywood, medium-density fiberboard and particle board.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026

If there is a ring particle in the way, the proton or electron is absorbed by this small snowball.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Even among those who did, many blamed the epidemic on miasma—conditions attributed to odors, stagnant water or unseen particles in the atmosphere.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

“There was a stillness, a deafening silence. It was the sensation of being a kid in a room where there’s only one light source and you can see the floating particles in the air.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026

That is more than 100 times the World Health Organization's recommended safe limit for airborne particles so small they can enter deep into the lungs and even the bloodstream, with potentially dire consequences for health.

From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026

Unlike axions, dark photons can produce electromagnetic waves even when no magnetic field is present, so the researchers searched the dataset for the different signature those particles would be expected to create.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 2026

As Percy watched, the last particles of Titan essence from Hyperion and Krios were vacuumed into the warrior’s maw.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• fleck
• fragment
• grain
• mite
• molecule
• ray
• speck