Word.ws English Dictionary

holon

holon noun: one of three kinds of quasiparticle (the others being the spinon and orbiton) that electrons in solids are able to split into during the process of spin–charge separation, when extremely tightly confined at temperatures close to absolute zero.

Noun (1)

holon (plural holons)

  1. (particle) One of three kinds of quasiparticle (the others being the spinon and orbiton) that electrons in solids are able to split into during the process of spin–charge separation, when extremely tightly confined at temperatures close to absolute zero.
    Synonyms:
    chargon

Noun (2)

holon (plural holons)

  1. Something that is both a part and a whole.
    • Before an atom is an atom, it is a holon. Before a cell is a cell, it is a holon. Before an idea is an idea, it is a holon. All of them are wholes that exist in other wholes, and thus they are all whole/parts, or holons, first and foremost (long before any “particular characteristics” are singled...1995, Ken Wilber, “The Pattern That Connects”, in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, Shambhala, →ISBN, Book One, pages 33–34

Synonyms of holon

Forms of holon

pluralholons

Origin of holon

From hole + -on.

From holo- (from Ancient Greek ὅλος (hólos, “whole”)) + -on (like taxon or meron). Coined by Arthur Koestler in his 1967 book The Ghost in the Machine.

Words formed from holon

Questions about holon

What does holon mean?
Holon means one of three kinds of quasiparticle (the others being the spinon and orbiton) that electrons in solids are able to split into during the process of spin–charge separation, when extremely tightly confined at temperatures close to absolute zero.
What part of speech is holon?
Holon is a noun.
What is the plural of holon?
The plural of holon is holons.

Words near holon in the dictionary

  1. holomovements
  2. holomycotroph
  3. holomycotrophic
  4. holomycotrophs
  5. holomyoglobin
  6. holon
  7. holonephridia
  8. holonephridial
  9. holonephridium
  10. holonic
  11. holonomic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holon (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: “holon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.