hadron

noun

had·​ron ˈha-ˌdrän How to pronounce hadron (audio)
: any of the subatomic particles (such as protons and neutrons) that are made up of quarks and are subject to the strong force
hadronic adjective

Examples of hadron in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Both the colored gluons and quarks are imprisoned within hadrons. Aaron Shattuck, Scientific American, 17 Sep. 2024 Because gluons are the carriers of the strong force, their effects are active only within length scales that are bounded by a typical hadron size, which is roughly the proton radius (that is, less than one femtometer). Aaron Shattuck, Scientific American, 17 Sep. 2024 But in the race for a theory of hadrons, the bootstrappers were overtaken. Quanta Magazine, 23 May 2024 However, a muon collider might combine the strengths of hadron and e+e- colliders— and be faster and cheaper to build. Byadrian Cho, science.org, 28 Mar. 2024 The second would upgrade the FCC-ee into a new hadron collider (FCC-hh) with an energy seven times that of the LHC. Yuen Yiu, Discover Magazine, 15 Oct. 2019 And a linear collider can't be repurposed into a high-energy hadron collider afterward. John Timmer, Ars Technica, 25 June 2020 But the argument had a flaw: While some hadrons do consist of pairs of quarks and anti-quarks and plausibly resemble strings, protons and neutrons contain three quarks apiece, invoking the ugly and uncertain picture of a string with three ends. Quanta Magazine, 18 Feb. 2015 Then there are dozens of particles made up of those elementary particles, including hadrons, which are constructed of quarks and gluons, and mesons, made of a quark and anti-quark. Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 19 June 2018

Word History

Etymology

International Scientific Vocabulary hadr- thick, heavy (from Greek hadros thick) + -on entry 2

First Known Use

1962, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of hadron was in 1962

Dictionary Entries Near hadron

Cite this Entry

“Hadron.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hadron. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on hadron

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!