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Webster 1913 Edition

Particle

Par′ti-cle

,
Noun.
[L.
particula
, dim. of
pars
, gen
partis
, a part: cf. F.
particule
. See
Part
, and cf.
Parcel
.]
1.
A minute part or portion of matter; a morsel; a little bit; an atom; a jot;
as, a
particle
of sand, of wood, of dust
.
The small size of atoms which unite
To make the smallest
particle
of light.
Blackmore.
2.
Any very small portion or part; the smallest portion;
as, he has not a
particle
of patriotism or virtue
.
The houses had not given their commissioners authority in the least
particle
to recede.
Clarendon.
3.
(R. C. Ch.)
(a)
A crumb or little piece of consecrated host.
(b)
The smaller hosts distributed in the communion of the laity.
Bp. Fitzpatrick.
4.
(Gram.)
A subordinate word that is never inflected (a preposition, conjunction, interjection); or a word that can not be used except in compositions;
as,
ward
in back
ward
,
ly
in love
ly
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Particle

P`ARTICLE

,
Noun.
[L. particula, from pars, part.]
1.
A minute part or portion of matter; as a particle of sand, of lime or of light.
2.
In physics, a minute part of a body, an aggregation or collection of which constitutes the whole body or mass. The word is sometimes used in the same sense as atom, in the ancient Epicurean philosophy, and corpuscle in the latter. In this sense, particles are the elements or constituent parts of bodies.
3.
Any very small portion or part; as, he has not a particle of patriotism or virtue; he would not resign a particle of his property.
4.
In the Latin church, a crumb or little piece of consecrated bread.
5.
In grammar, a word that is not varied or inflected; as a preposition.
Organic particles, very minute moving bodies,perceptible only by the help of the microscope, discovered in the semen of animals.

Definition 2024

particle

particle

English

Noun

particle ‎(plural particles)

  1. A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something. [from 14th c.]
  2. (linguistics, sensu lato) A part of speech which cannot be inflected: an adverb, preposition, conjunction or interjection.
    • 1844, E. A. Andrews: First Lessions in Latin; or Introduction to Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar. (6th edition, Boston), p.91 (at books.google)
      322. The parts of speech which are neither declined nor conjugated, are called by the general name of particles. 323. They are adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
    • 1894 (2008), B. L. Gildersleeve & G. Lodge: Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar (reprint of the 3rd edition by Dover, 2008), p.9. (at books.google)
      The Parts of Speech are the Noun (Substantive and Adjective), the Pronoun, the Verb, and the Particles (Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction)[.]
  3. (linguistics, sensu stricto) 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.
    • 1965 June 4, Shigeyuki Kuroda, “Generative grammatical studies in the Japanese language”, in DSpace@MIT, retrieved 2014-02-24, page 38:
      In English there is no grammatical device to differentiate predicational judgments from nonpredicational descriptions. This distinction does cast a shadow on the grammatical sphere to some extent, but recognition of it must generally be made in semantic terms. It is maintained here that in Japanese, on the other hand, the distinction is grammatically realized through the use of the two particles wa and ga.
    • 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 133:
      Traditional grammar typically recognises a number of further categories: for example, in his Reference Book of Terms in Traditional Grammar for Language Students, Simpson (1982) posits two additional word-level categories which he refers to as Particle, and Conjunction. Particles include the italicised words in (58) below:
      (58)
      (a) He put his hat on
      (b) If you pull too hard, the handle will come off
      (c) He was leaning too far over the side, and fell out
      (d) He went up to see the manager
  4. (physics) Any of various physical objects making up the constituent parts of an atom; an elementary particle or subatomic particle. [from 19th c.]
    • 2011, Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw, The Quantum Universe, Allen Lane 2011, p. 55:
      What, he asked himself, does quantum theory have to say about the familiar properties of particles such as position?
    • 2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146:
      The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:particle

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

body with very small size

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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