particle

Meaning

1. A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something.
2. Any of various physical objects making up the constituent parts of an atom; an elementary particle or subatomic particle.
3. 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).
4. A part of speech which cannot be inflected.
5. In the Roman Catholic church, a crumb of consecrated bread; also the smaller breads used in the communion of the laity.
6. A little bit.

Concepts

particle

grain

atom

speck

fragment

dust

bit

corpuscle

molecule

mote

conjunction

iota

whit

elementary particle

piece

powder

crumb

subatomic particle

element

conjunctive

material point

postposition

auxiliary word

part

small piece

dirt

jot

scrap

granule

particulate

post-positional particle

dot

only a little

only one

point

ending word

chunk

segment

slab

slice

ashes

cinders

grime

lint

sprinkling

mite

shred

snippet

tittle

ounce

very small quantity

often a suffix

fleck

smite

item

anything small

pinch

gravel

pebble

small stone

minimum

microboulder

microne

grain diameter

grain size

particle diameter

particle size

mass point

material particle

point particle

point unit

granulation

bullet

pellet

small portion

tiny part

Joshi

impurity

sent

adverb

clitic

very little

participle

partitive case

modicum

smidgen

morsel

drop

numerator

connective word

meet

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpɑːtɪk(ə)l/

Etymology

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