particle

Meanings

Plural: particles

Noun

• (nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything
• a body having finite mass and internal structure but negligible dimensions
• a function word that can be used in English to form phrasal verbs
• A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something.
• Any of various physical objects making up the constituent parts of an atom; an elementary particle or subatomic particle.
• A part of speech that has no inherent lexical definition but must be associated with another word to impart meaning, often a grammatical category: for example, the English word to in a full infinitive phrase (to eat) or O in a vocative phrase (O Canada), or as a discourse marker (mmm).
• A part of speech which cannot be inflected.
• In the Roman Catholic church, a crumb of consecrated bread; also the smaller breads used in the communion of the laity.
• A little bit.

Synonyms

ace, atom, aught, bissel, bit, chip, chunk, clip, corpuscle, crumb, crumbling, cutting, dab, damn, dash, diddly, dot, drop, dusting, flake, fleak, fleck, flip, flyspeck, fragment, glimpse, glint, grain, halfpennyworth, hint, hunk, inch, iota, jot, lick, lump, mammock, mite, modicum, molecule, morceau, morsel, mote, ooch, ort, ounce, p-word, particle, pennyworth, piece, piecemeal, pinch, portion, scantling, scent, scintilla, scooch, scrap, scraplet, scruple, semblance, shred, skerrick, skoosh, skosh, slice, sliver, smattering, smidge, smidgen, smidget, smidgy, smitch, smithereen, snead, snippet, soupçon, spark, spatter, speck, speckle, spot, sprinkle, sprinkling, steck, strain, subatomic particle, tad, tidbit, tidge, tittle, toddick, touch, trace, trifle, tuppence worth, whiff, whit

Related Words

part, particle accelerator, particle beam, particle board, particle physics, particle shower, particular, particulate