particle

  1. Noun.  A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something. (defdate, from 14th c.) .
  2. Noun.  (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. (defdate, from 16th c.) .
  3. Noun.  (physics) Any of various physical objects making up the constituent parts of an atom; an elementary particle or subatomic particle. (defdate, from 19th c.) .

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This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.