particle

CEFRC1

/ˈpɑːtɪkl̩/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
A very small piece of matter.
02
noun
A small word used with a verb to change its meaning.

Examples

He does not have a particle of honesty in him.
He doesn't have a particle of kindness in his heart.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 5

Also pronounced

/ˈpɑɹtək(ə)l/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

A part of speech that has no inherent lexical definition but must be associated with another word to impart meaning, often a grammatical category: for example, the English word to in a full infinitive phrase (to eat) or O in a vocative phrase (O Canada), or a...
Any of various physical objects making up the constituent parts of an atom; an elementary particle or subatomic particle.
A very small piece of matter, a fragment; especially, the smallest possible part of something.

More examples

In context

The Parts of Speech are the Noun (Substantive and Adjective), the Pronoun, the Verb, and the Particles (Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction)[.]
322. The parts of speech which are neither declined nor conjugated, are called by the general name of particles. 323. They are adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
Not every exasperated petty bourgeois could have become Hitler, but a particle of Hitler is lodged in every exasperated petty bourgeois.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Under the microscope, the scientist observed a tiny blank of dust floating in the air.

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Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

Be content with the knowledge that, ere the voyage had ended, both she and I were desperately and unreasoningly in love with one another. Heaven knows that I can make the admission now without one particle of vanity.
1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”, in The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler and Co., page 10
Not every exasperated petty bourgeois could have become Hitler, but a particle of Hitler is lodged in every exasperated petty bourgeois.
1933 December 1, Leon Trotsky, “Hitler’s National Socialism”, in The Yale Review, volume 23, number 2
What, he asked himself, does quantum theory have to say about the familiar properties of particles such as position?
2011, Brian Cox, Jeff Forshaw, The Quantum Universe, Allen Lane, published 2011, page 55
The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.
2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146
In English there is no grammatical device to differentiate predicational judgments from nonpredicational descriptions. This distinction does cast a shadow on the grammatical sphere to some extent, but recognition of it must generally be made in semantic terms. It is maintained here that in Japanese, on the other hand, the distinction is grammatically realized through the use of the two particles wa and ga.
1965 June 4, Shigeyuki Kuroda, “Generative grammatical studies in the Japanese language”, in DSpace@MIT, retrieved 24 Feb 2014, page 38

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Origin

noun

From Middle French particule, and its source, Latin particula (“small part, particle”), diminutive of pars (“part, piece”). Semantically displaced native Old English grot whence modern English groat.

Deep Dive

noun

More examples

Related

Quick test

Under the microscope, the scientist observed a tiny blank— of dust floating in the air.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Under the microscope, the scientist observed a tiny blank of dust floating in the air.