Gluon
//ˈɡluː.ɒn// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A massless gauge boson that binds quarks together to form baryons, mesons and other hadrons and is associated with the strong nuclear force. particle
"Naive realism might ask today: Tell me what space is in itself, not in terms of other things. Tell me what a gluon is at bottom, or a neutrino, or a charge."
- 2 a gauge boson that mediates strong interaction among quarks wordnet
Example
More examples"Naive realism might ask today: Tell me what space is in itself, not in terms of other things. Tell me what a gluon is at bottom, or a neutrino, or a charge."
Etymology
From glue + -on. From being a particle (suffix "-on") that "glues" (attracts) together particles that feel the force carried by the gluon. Coined by American physicist Murray Gell-Mann in 1962.
Related phrases
More for "gluon"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.