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quark
[ kwawrk, kwahrk ]
noun
- Physics. any of the hypothetical particles with spin 1/2, baryon number 1/3, and electric charge 1/3 or −2/3 that, together with their antiparticles, are believed to constitute all the elementary particles classed as baryons and mesons; they are distinguished by their flavors, designated as up (u), down (d), strange (s), charm (c), bottom or beauty (b), and top or truth (t), and their colors, red, green, and blue. Compare color ( def 18 ), flavor ( def 5 ), quantum chromodynamics, quark model.
quark
1/ kwɑːk /
noun
- a type of low-fat soft cheese
quark
2/ kwɑːk /
noun
- physics any of a set of six hypothetical elementary particles together with their antiparticles thought to be fundamental units of all baryons and mesons but unable to exist in isolation. The magnitude of their charge is either two thirds or one third of that of the electron
quark
/ kwôrk,kwärk /
- Any of a group of elementary particles supposed to be the fundamental units that combine to make up the subatomic particles known as hadrons (baryons, such as neutrons and protons, and mesons). There are six different flavors (or types) of quark: up quark, down quark, top quark, bottom quark, charm quark, and strange quark. Quarks have fractional electric charges, such as 1 3 the charge of an electron.
- See Note at elementary particleSee Table at subatomic particle
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Word History and Origins
Origin of quark1
Coined in 1963 by U.S. physicist Murray Gell-Mann (1929–2019), who associated it with a word in Joyce's Finnegans Wake, read variously as English quark croak and German Quark curd, (slang) rubbish, tripe
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Word History and Origins
Origin of quark1
from German
Origin of quark2
C20: coined by James Joyce in the novel Finnegans Wake, and given special application in physics
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Example Sentences
Jemmy Quark left him, and, rushing to the town, cried out that something horrible had washed ashore.
From Project Gutenberg
There was now a sublime scorn printed on the features of Jemmy Quark.
From Project Gutenberg
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