elementary particles

Noun

elementary particle (plural elementary particles)

1. A fundamental particle; any of the subatomic particles that do not consist of other, smaller particles; the gauge bosons, leptons and quarks.
   • 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, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146

   Synonyms:

   fundamental particle