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atom.

The smallest possible amount of matter which still retains its identity as a chemical element, now known to consist of a nucleus surrounded by electrons.

4 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈætəm/[ˈæɾm̩]General-American[ˈæɾəm]General-American
  1. The smallest possible amount of matter which still retains its identity as a chemical element, now known to consist of a nucleus surrounded by electrons.

  2. A hypothetical particle posited by Greek philosophers as an ultimate and indivisible component of matter.

  3. The smallest, indivisible constituent part or unit of something.

  4. In logical atomism, a fundamental fact that cannot be further broken down.

  5. The smallest medieval unit of time, equal to fifteen ninety-fourths of a second.

    historical
  6. A mote of dust in a sunbeam.

  7. A very small amount; a whit.

  8. An individual number or symbol, as opposed to a list; a scalar value.

  9. An integer representing a particular string.

  10. A non-zero member of a partially ordered set that has only zero below it (assuming that the poset has a least element, its "zero").

    In a Venn diagram, an atom is depicted as an area circumscribed by lines but not cut by any line.
  11. An element of a set that is not itself a set; an urelement.

  12. An age group division in hockey for nine- to eleven-year-olds.

    Canada · attributive · usually
Where this word comes from

From Middle English attome, from Middle French athome, from Latin atomus (“smallest particle”), from Ancient Greek ἄτομος (átomos, “indivisible”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + τέμνω (témnō, “to cut”, o-grade in τομ-) + -ος (-os). Atoms are so named because they were historically thought up as to be the smallest unit of matter, and thus indivisible. Doublet of atomus.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.