subatomic

From sub- + atomic.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌsʌbəˈtɒmɪk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌsʌbəˈtɑːmɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɒmɪk

subatomic (not comparable)

1. (physics) Relating to particles that are constituents of the atom, or are smaller than an atom; such as proton, neutron, electron, etc.
   • 2023 October 9, Dennis Overbye, “The Science Nobel Winners Were Short and Fast”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 12 October 2023:

     We humans are so stuck in the middle of the cosmic scales — in average height, one-hundredth of one-septillionth (10^-24) the size of the observable universe, and with typical life spans of a couple octillion attoseconds. And an attosecond is an eternity compared with the lifetime of the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that exists for one-thousandth of an attosecond before decaying.

2. Relating to something that is smaller in scale than the diameter of a hydrogen atom.

   The electron microscope is able to resolve detail at the subatomic level.

• atomic
• subatomically
• subatomic particle

Borrowed from French subatomique.

subatomic m or n (feminine singular subatomică, masculine plural subatomici, feminine/neuter plural subatomice)

1. subatomic