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

Venus's clouds may behave according to a similar optical principle because their particle size distribution is comparable to that of cigarette smoke.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026

The cholesterol-carrying particle is similar to LDL, but it may be more damaging and its levels are largely determined by genetics.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

Scientific observations show the haze contains levels of toxic small particle pollution far exceeding the World Health Organization's recommended safe limit.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

Using a sensitive detector in an an underground laboratory in the US, the researchers saw an atom and mystery particle colliding.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

In some worlds there will be many suns in the daytime sky, many moons in the heavens at night, or great particle ring systems soaring from horizon to horizon.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

One planned instrument, the Autofluorescence Nephelometer, is designed to examine Venus's cloud particles for fluorescence we expect to be associated with organic molecules.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026

Smoke can appear white because its sub-micrometer particles scatter light extremely effectively.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026

Quantum mechanics has been enormously successful at describing atoms, particles, and other microscopic systems.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

But less well-known is sulphur pollution, which forms vast numbers of tiny particles in the air and reflects sunlight back into space, partly counteracting the warming effect of carbon.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

They had been breathing in ash that coated their throats, the particles of dust sucking their mouth dry, just like it did the smaller springs that had fed into the Green River.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

Related Words

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