God particle
God particle noun: the Higgs boson.
Noun
God particle (plural God particles)
- The Higgs boson.
- Among other fascinating insights, Penrose explains that the God particle was originally proposed by Peter Higgs as "an ingenious theoretical device, and not necessarily appearing as an actual particle. As a device, it allowed other particles to acquire mass,[…]."1998, Phillip E. Johnson, Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education, →ISBN, page 229
- The first thing you learn when you ask scientists about the God particle is that it′s bad form to call it that.2008, “National Geographic”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 213, page 101
Forms of God particle
| plural | God particles |
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Origin of God particle
Coined by American mathematician and physicist Leon M. Lederman in 1993 in his book The God Particle, the title having been changed at the suggestion of his editor. According to Lederman (page 22), he wanted to call the Higgs boson the Goddamn Particle, "given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing", but his publisher wouldn't let him. So they agreed to call it "The God Particle" as "there is a connection, of sorts" to the Bible and the story of the Tower of Babel in the sense that it appears as if the Higgs boson "has been put there to test and confuse us".
Questions about God particle
- What does God particle mean?
- God particle means the Higgs boson.
- What part of speech is God particle?
- God particle is a noun.
- What is the plural of God particle?
- The plural of God particle is God particles.
Words near God particle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: God particle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “God particle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/god_particle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.