noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   a fundamental particle, a gauge boson, that, together with the W-boson, mediates the weak nuclear force; it has a charge of 0 particle

Etymology

Coined by American physicist Sheldon Glashow in 1961. The use of Z was not explained but may stand for zero.

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