particle

Noun
  1. (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything (synset 114609699)
    is a type of: material, stuff - the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object
    subtypes:
    • grain - a relatively small granular particle of a substance
    • grinding - material resulting from the process of grinding
    • chylomicron - a microscopic particle of triglycerides produced in the intestines during digestion; in the bloodstream they release their fatty acids into the blood
    • flyspeck - a tiny dark speck made by the excrement of a fly
    • identification particle - a tiny particle of material that can be added to a product to indicate the source of manufacture
    same as: atom, corpuscle, molecule, mote, speck
  2. A body having finite mass and internal structure but negligible dimensions (synset 109409315)
    is a type of: body - an individual 3-dimensional object that has mass and that is distinguishable from other objects
    subtypes:
    • virion - (virology) a complete viral particle; nucleic acid and capsid (and a lipid envelope in some viruses)
    • alpha particle - a positively charged particle that is the nucleus of the helium atom; emitted from natural or radioactive isotopes
    • beta particle - a high-speed electron or positron emitted in the decay of a radioactive isotope
    • boson - any particle that obeys Bose-Einstein statistics but not the Pauli exclusion principle; all nuclei with an even mass number are bosons
    • deuteron - the nucleus of deuterium; consists of one proton and one neutron; used as a bombarding particle in accelerators
    • elementary particle, fundamental particle - (physics) a particle that is less complex than an atom; regarded as constituents of all matter
    • fermion - any particle that obeys Fermi-Dirac statistics and is subject to the Pauli exclusion principle
    • ion - a particle that is electrically charged (positive or negative); an atom or molecule or group that has lost or gained one or more electrons
    • magnetic monopole - a hypothetical particle with a single magnetic pole instead of the usual two
    • micelle - an electrically charged particle built up from polymeric molecules or ions and occurring in certain colloidal electrolytic solutions like soaps and detergents
    • prion - (microbiology) an infectious protein particle similar to a virus but lacking nucleic acid; thought to be the agent responsible for scrapie and other degenerative diseases of the nervous system
    • virino - (microbiology) a hypothetical infectious particle thought to be the cause of scrapie and other degenerative diseases of the central nervous system; consists of nucleic acid in a protective coat of host cell proteins
    • scintilla - a sparkling glittering particle
    • superstring - a hypothetical particle that is the elementary particle in a theory of space-time
    • thermion - an electrically charged particle (electron or ion) emitted by a substance at a high temperature
    same as: subatomic particle
  3. A function word that can be used in English to form phrasal verbs (synset 106337399)
    is a type of: closed-class word, function word - a word that is uninflected and serves a grammatical function but has little identifiable meaning

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