Particle definition

pärtĭ-kəl
particles
See word origin
Frequency:
A very small or the smallest possible amount, trace, or degree.

Not a particle of doubt.

noun
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(archaic) A clause or article in a document.
noun
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A very small piece of solid matter.
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An elementary particle, subatomic particle, or atomic nucleus.
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The definition of a particle is a very small amount of something.

An example of a particle is a speck of dust.

noun
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(ecclesiastical) A portion or fragment of the Eucharistic host.
noun
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(archaic) A small part of something written, such as a clause of a document.
noun
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A body whose spatial extent and internal motion and structure, if any, are irrelevant in a specific problem.
noun
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An elementary particle.
noun
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A subatomic particle.
noun
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An uninflected item that has grammatical function but does not clearly belong to one of the major parts of speech, such as up in He looked up the word or to in English infinitives.
noun
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In some systems of grammatical analysis, any of various short function words, including articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.
noun
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(r.c.ch.) A small piece of the consecrated Host or any of the small Hosts given to lay communicants.
noun
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An extremely small piece; tiny fragment.

A dust particle.

noun
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The slightest trace; speck.

Not a particle of truth.

noun
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A short, usually uninflected and invariable part of speech used to express a syntactic or semantic relationship, as an article or any of certain prepositions, conjunctions, or interjections.
noun
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A prefix or derivational suffix.
noun
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A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something. [from 14th c.]
noun
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(linguistics) A word that has a particular grammatical function but does not obviously belong to any particular part of speech, such as the word to in English infinitives or O as the vocative particle. [from 16th c.]
noun
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(physics) Any of various physical objects making up the constituent parts of an atom; an elementary particle or subatomic particle. [from 19th c.]
noun
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A very small piece or part; a tiny portion or speck.
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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
particle
Plural:
particles

Origin of particle

  • Middle English from Latin particula diminutive of pars part- part part

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Middle French particule, and its source, Latin particula (“small part, particle"), diminutive of pars (“part, piece").

    From Wiktionary

Particle Sentence Examples

  • Let x, y, z be the co-ordinates of any particle of the medium in its natural state, and, 7 7, the displacements of the same particle at the end of time t, measured in the directions of the three axes respectively.

  • A particle of this mass is easily visible microscopically, and a velocity of 2 mm.

  • It remained a desideratum to express by equations the motion of a particle of the fluid in any assigned direction.

  • In starting the furnace, the bottom is prepared by ramming it with charcoal-powder that has been soaked in milk of lime and dried, so that each particle is coated with a film of lime, which serves to reduce the loss of current by conduction through the lining when the furnace becomes hot.

  • On account of the smallness of the particles, the forces acting throughout the volume of any individual particle are all of the same intensity and direction, and may be considered as a whole.

More sentences

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Also Mentioned In

Words near particle in the Dictionary