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quark definition

quark (kwôrk, kwärk)

noun

☆ Particle Physics any of a set of elementary particles that bind together in various combinations to form hadrons

Etymology: arbitrary use (by M. Gell-Mann) of a word used by James Joyce in Finnegans Wake, prob. < archaic quark, to croak, of echoic orig.

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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