strangeness
the quality or condition of being strange.
Physics. a quantum number assigned the value −1 for one kind of quark, +1 for its antiquark, and 0 for all other quarks; the strangeness of a hadron is the sum of the values for the strangeness of its constituent quarks and antiquarks. Symbol: S
Origin of strangeness
1- Compare strange quark.
Words Nearby strangeness
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use strangeness in a sentence
The strangeness of this NFL season reached new heights in Week 7.
What to know from NFL Week 7: The Bengals are for real and the Chiefs are in real trouble | Adam Kilgore | October 25, 2021 | Washington PostThere’s grief, identity, family, the strangeness of diasporas and an unflinching vocabulary of desire.
He is acutely aware of his own strangeness and his own inability to fit in with his peers at school.
Richard Powers on His Latest Book, Bewilderment—And Why Children Are the Ones to Call Out Climate Change Evasion | Elijah Wolfson | September 23, 2021 | TimeThere is a quantum strangeness to time so the interval between two events can mean a quantum superposition of two times taking place at once.
8 Questions with Theoretical Physicist Carlo Rovelli—Including Quantum, Cats and Why We Should Forget About Time | Jeffrey Kluger | May 25, 2021 | TimeI did really feel the panic and strangeness of what happened and the frustration of the weird band of defendants who are kind of all on the same side, and kind of not.
Part of that strangeness is the feeling veterans sometimes have that their lives will never be as important as they were overseas.
The Veteran Who Took Home the National Book Award | Jacob Siegel | November 25, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWe feel their strangeness when we read their words—they lived on a plane where few dare to tread.
Sor Juana: Mexico’s Most Erotic Poet and Its Most Dangerous Nun | Katie Baker | November 8, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHe walked for several blocks in the weak light, confused at the strangeness—tense and somewhat frightened.
‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ Is a Classic Twice over—as a Movie and a Novel | Malcolm Jones | February 9, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe rock paintings, because they are so much harder to read, seem more profound in their strangeness.
Waiting for a taxi, he breathed in the spicy, flaccid atmosphere of the city and felt the strangeness of things around him.
Here was the strangeness of it: that he did not distrust Lettice, nor felt resentment against Tony.
The Wave | Algernon BlackwoodAlso, that the quality that had impressed me first as being malefic was really only its singular and original strangeness.
Three More John Silence Stories | Algernon BlackwoodHe said nothing, and his absolute silence following upon his violent singing strengthened the grip of his strangeness upon her.
Bella Donna | Robert HichensFollowing a brief interval, during which even Mollie Gretna was held silent by the strangeness of the proceedings.
Dope | Sax RohmerShe did not know the room to which this window belonged, and she paused under the trees, checked by a sense of strangeness.
Summer | Edith Wharton
British Dictionary definitions for strangeness
/ (ˈstreɪndʒnɪs) /
the state or quality of being strange
physics a property of certain elementary particles, characterized by a quantum number (strangeness number) conserved in strong and electromagnetic but not in weak interactions. It is associated with the presence of strange quarks
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for strangeness
[ strānj′nĭs ]
The property of containing a strange quark or antiquark. Strangeness is expressed in terms of an integer quantum number, -1 for each strange quark and +1 for each strange antiquark. Hadrons that possess strangeness are called strange. The total strangeness of a quantum system is unchanged by decay processes involving the strong or electromagnetic forces; however, decay through the weak force can change the total strangeness of the system. See also baryon number isospin.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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