baryon

bar·y·on  (br-n)

n.

Any of a family of subatomic particles, including the nucleon and hyperon multiplets, that participate in strong interactions, are composed of three quarks, and are generally more massive than mesons. Also called heavy particle. See Table at subatomic particle.

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[Greek barus, heavy; see g^wer-¹ in Indo-European roots + -on.]

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bary·onic adj.

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baryon [bar-ree-on]

Noun

an elementary particle that has a mass greater than or equal to that of the proton [Greek barus heavy]

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baryon  (br-n)

Any of a family of subatomic particles composed of three quarks or three antiquarks. They are generally more massive than mesons, and interact with each other via the strong force. Baryons form a subclass of hadrons and are subdivided into nucleons and hyperons. Protons and neutrons are baryons. See Table at subatomic particle.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

baryon - any of the elementary particles having a mass equal to or greater than that of a proton and that participate in strong interactions; a hadron with a baryon number of +1 heavy particle fermion - any particle that obeys Fermi-Dirac statistics and is subject to the Pauli exclusion principle hadron - any elementary particle that interacts strongly with other particles hyperon - any baryon that is not a nucleon; unstable particle with mass greater than a neutron nucleon - a constituent (proton or neutron) of an atomic nucleus