Subatomic
adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Relating to particles that are constituents of the atom, or are smaller than an atom; such as proton, neutron, electron, etc. not-comparable
"We humans are so stuck in the middle of the cosmic scales — in average height, one-hundredth of one-septillionth (10^-24) the size of the observable universe, and with typical life spans of a couple octillion attoseconds. And an attosecond is an eternity compared with the lifetime of the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that exists for one-thousandth of an attosecond before decaying."
- 2 Relating to something that is smaller in scale than the diameter of a hydrogen atom. not-comparable
"The electron microscope is able to resolve detail at the subatomic level."
- 1 of smaller than atomic dimensions wordnet
- 2 of or relating to constituents of the atom or forces within the atom wordnet
Example
More examples"A careful analysis of the process of observation in atomic physics has shown that the subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities, but can only be understood as interconnections between the preparation of an experiment and the subsequent measurement."
Etymology
From sub- + atomic.
Related phrases
More for "subatomic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.