What does "neutron" mean?

A subatomic particle forming part of the nucleus of an atom and having no charge; it is a combination of an up quark and two down quarks.

Neutron

Q: What is a synonym for "neutron"?

Common synonyms include: alpha particle, antibaryon, antilepton, antimeson, atomic nucleus, atomic particle.

//ˈnu.tɹɑn// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
A subatomic particle forming part of the nucleus of an atom and having no charge; it is a combination of an up quark and two down quarks. particle
2
an elementary particle with 0 charge and mass about equal to a proton; enters into the structure of the atomic nucleus wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

alpha particle antibaryon antilepton antimeson atomic nucleus atomic particle

Example

More examples

"A star that is 1.5 to 4 times larger than our Sun will become a neutron star. Stars that are even bigger than that will become black holes."

Etymology

From neutral + -on; by surface analysis, neutr(o)- + -on. Coined by Scottish-Australian physicist William Sutherland in 1899 in a paper in the Philosophical Magazine. Subsequent usage was sporadic and theoretical, sometimes referring to neutrinos rather than neutrons, and the modern sense was reintroduced alongside proton by Ernest Rutherford in 1920.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.