quark

American  

[kwawrk, kwahrk] / kwɔrk, kwɑrk /

noun

1. Physics. any of the hypothetical particles with spin 1/2, baryon number 1/3, and electric charge 1/3 or −2/3 that, together with their antiparticles, are believed to constitute all the elementary particles classed as baryons and mesons; they are distinguished by their flavors, designated as up (u), down (d), strange (s), charm (c), bottom or beauty (b), and top or truth (t), and their colors, red, green, and blue.

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quark ¹ British  

/ kwɑːk /

noun

1. a type of low-fat soft cheese

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quark ² British  

/ kwɑːk /

noun

1. physics any of a set of six hypothetical elementary particles together with their antiparticles thought to be fundamental units of all baryons and mesons but unable to exist in isolation. The magnitude of their charge is either two thirds or one third of that of the electron

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quark Scientific  

/ kwôrk,kwärk /

1. Any of a group of elementary particles supposed to be the fundamental units that combine to make up the subatomic particles known as hadrons (baryons, such as neutrons and protons, and mesons). There are six different flavors (or types) of quark: up quark, down quark, top quark, bottom quark, charm quark, and strange quark. Quarks have fractional electric charges, such as 1/3 the charge of an electron.

2. See Note at elementary particle See Table at subatomic particle

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Etymology

Origin of quark

Coined in 1963 by U.S. physicist Murray Gell-Mann (1929–2019), who associated it with a word in Joyce's Finnegans Wake, read variously as English quark croak and German Quark curd, (slang) rubbish, tripe

Example Sentences

My father, who was a physicist, said if someone can’t define a quark in less than 30 seconds, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

From The Wall Street Journal

"Unlike quarks, which can interact with the plasma, these leptons pass through it largely unscathed, carrying undistorted information about their environment."

From Science Daily

The names for these speculative particles often tack on an S to the names of known particles: selectrons contrast electrons, the squark is the inverted twin of the quark, and so on.

From Salon

This new view of entanglement among quarks and gluons adds a layer of complexity to an evolving picture of protons' inner structure.

From Science Daily

Their approach attempts to illuminate a cosmological constant as well as the properties of leptons and quarks.

From Salon