Dictionary

quark en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• kwäk (Received-Pronunciation)
• kwärk (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /kwɔɹk/ (dated)
• (General-American) audio
• /kwɑːk/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (General-American) audio
• kwôrk (dated)
• /kwɑɹk/ (General-American)

Etymology

Etymology 1 sense 1 (“subatomic particle”) was coined by the American physicist Murray Gell-Mann (1929–2019) in 1963, apparently an arbitrary word. Subsequently, in a letter dated 27 June 1978 to the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary Supplement, Gell-Mann associated the word with the sentence “Three quarks for Muster Mark!” from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (1939) and indicated that he pronounced the word /kwɔɹk/, reasoning that the sentence referred to a call in a pub for “three quarts”. However, the context in the book indicates that quark is probably a variant of quawk (“harsh call of a bird”) and was intended by Joyce to be pronounced /kwɑːk/, the modern pronunciation.

Meanings

1. (particle) In the Standard Model, one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter. They are theorized not to exist in isolation, but only in combinations in hadrons such as neutrons and protons or in quark–gluon plasmas.
   • There are six known quarks in nature, the up, down, strange, charm, bottom, and the top quark. The quarks are arranged in three pairs or "generations". Each member of a pair may be transformed into its partner via the charged-current weak interaction. Together with the six known leptons (the electron, muon, tau, and their associated neutrinos), the six quarks constitute all of the known luminous matter in the universe. The understanding of the properties of the quarks and leptons and their interactions is therefore of paramount importance. 2006 December, Arnuf Quadt, “Top Quark Physics at Hadron Colliders”, in The European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg: Springer, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 835, column 1; republished as Douglas H. Beck, Dieter Haidt, John W[illiam] Negele, editors, Top Quark Physics at Hadron Colliders (Advances in the Physics of Particles and Nuclei; 28), Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer, 2007, →ISBN, page 1:
   • There were also particles no one had predicted that just appeared. Five of them are of interest to me here. In order of increasing modernity, they are the neutrino, the pi meson, the antiproton, the quark and the Higgs boson. […] It fairly rapidly became clear to physicists that free quarks were not going to be found. Making a virtue out of necessity, they invented a dynamics that would permanently confine quarks within particles. In this scenario quarks exchange particles called gluons. […] There is no escape. Quarks are imprisoned forever. 2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Apr 2023, page 146:
   • A simpler and more elegant scheme can be constructed if we allow non-integral values for the charges. We can dispense entirely with the basic baryon b if we assign to the triplet t the following properties: spin #92;frac#123;1#125;#123;2#125;, z#61;#123;-#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;3 1964 February 1, M[urray] Gell-Mann, “A Schematic Model of Baryons and Mesons”, in Physics Letters, volume 8, number 3, Amsterdam, North Holland: North-Holland Publishing Company, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Jun 2022, page 214, column 2:
2. (broadly, qualifier:X Window System) An integer that uniquely identifies a text string.
   • Two functions are provided to convert between strings and quarks: XrmStringToQuark and XrmQuarkToString […] The second takes a quark as its parameter and returns a pointer to its associated string; it is used primarily for debugging and runtime error messages. 1992, Keith D. Gregory, “Resources Revisited”, in Programming with Motif, New York, N.Y.: Springer-Verlag New York, →DOI, →ISBN, page 453:
3. (broadly, qualifier:X Window System, slang) A nonsense, trivial text string.

Forms

Antonyms

antiquark

Coordinates

atom

Deriveds

strange quark matter · prequark · quink · quark-antiquark · quark nova · strange quark star · quark model · quagma · interquark · quark matter · quarkless · quark nugget · quark-gluon plasma · quarkyonic · quarkonic · quark theory · quark star · quarkonium

Hypernyms

fermion · elementary particle · subatomic particle

Hyponyms

beauty quark (known quarks) · sea quark (hypothetical quarks) · tetraquark (hypothetical quarks) · hexaquark (hypothetical quarks) · heptaquark (hypothetical quarks) · cryptoquark (hypothetical quarks) · down quark (known quarks) · squark (hypothetical quarks) · up quark (known quarks) · truth quark (known quarks) · bottom quark (known quarks) · charm quark (known quarks) · monoquark (hypothetical quarks) · triquark (hypothetical quarks) · pentaquark (hypothetical quarks) · diquark (hypothetical quarks) · polyquark (hypothetical quarks) · subquark (hypothetical quarks) · hyperquark (hypothetical quarks) · techniquark (hypothetical quarks) · biquark (hypothetical quarks) · top quark (known quarks) · leptoquark (hypothetical quarks) · strange quark (known quarks) · multiquark (hypothetical quarks) · charmed quark (known quarks) · sexaquark (hypothetical quarks)

Synonyms

quark · ace

Translations (97)

pt quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · cy cwarc (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · sl kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · el κουάρκ (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · sk kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · sv kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · cs kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · gl quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · war quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · oc quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · hu kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · af kwark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ja クォーク (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ary كوارك (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · fa کوارک (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · io quarko (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · he קווארק (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · te క్వార్క్ (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · sh kvȁrk (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · nn kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · fi quark-luku (integer that uniquely identifies a text string) · lb quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ar كِوَرْكٌ (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · it quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · fi kvarkki (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ro quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ne क्वार्क (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ru кварк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ka კვარკი (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · dsb kwark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ps کوارک (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · is kvarki (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · hsb kwark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · id kuark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · hi क्वार्क (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · vec quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · es quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · tg кварк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · mr क्वार्क (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · vi quắc (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · eo kvarko (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · cmn 夸克 (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · mk ква́рк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · da kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · bg кварк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · th ควาร์ก (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · sh ква̏рк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · az kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · fr quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · scn quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · zu inkemfe (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · my ကွာ့ (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · uk кварк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · tt kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · li quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · lv kvarki (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ur کوارک (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · de Quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · la quaricum (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · tl quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · es cuark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · et kvargid (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · tr kuark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · pa ਕੁਆਰਕ (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ast quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · cmn 層子 /层子 (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · mt quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ta குவார்க்கு (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · pnb کوارک (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · kk кварк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · nl quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · anp क्वार्क (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · bn কোয়ার্ক (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · sq kuarku (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · pl kwark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · fi vähäpätöinen merkkijono (nonsense, trivial text string) · cv кварк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · nb kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · su quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ht kwak (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · om kuwaarkii (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · yue 夸克 (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · lo ຄວາກ (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ko 쿼크 (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · uz kvark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ms kuark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · hy քվարկ (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ga cuarc (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ky кварк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · lt kvarkas (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · be кварк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · la quarcum (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · fo kvarkur (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ca quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · eu quark (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · mn кварк (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter) · ml ക്വാർക്ക് (one of a number of elementary subatomic particles having fractional electric charge that forms matter)

wikidata: Q6718 · wikipedia: James Joyce · wikipedia: Finnegans Wake · wikipedia: Oxford English Dictionary

quark en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• kwäk (Received-Pronunciation)
• kwärk (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /kvɑːk/ reproducing the German pronunciation
• /kwɑːk/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (General-American) audio
• kväk reproducing the German pronunciation
• /kwɑɹk/ (General-American)

Etymology

[Alt: A spoonful of quark cheese served with tomato slices on a plate] Borrowed from German Quark (“cottage cheese; curds; curd cheese”). Doublet of tvorog and twaróg.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow's milk, originating from and eaten throughout central, northern, eastern, and southeastern Europe, as well as the Low Countries.

Coordinates

twaróg · tvorog

Hypernyms

fermion · elementary particle · subatomic particle

Hyponyms

beauty quark · down quark · bottom quark · charm quark · top quark · strange quark · truth quark · up quark

Synonyms

quark

Translations (82)

he גבינת קווארק (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · jv quark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · sl skuta (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ab аҳаҭашә (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · it quark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · pl twaróg (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · cy cwarc (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · bg извара (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · bar Tschottn (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · sv kvarg (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · fi maitorahka (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · de Topfen (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ru тво́рог (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · es requesón (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · mk урда (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · uk творо́г (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ckb تۆراغ (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · uz tvorog (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · fr quark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · lv kupināts piens (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · csb glëmza (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · tt eremçek (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · fo kvarkur (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · hy կաթնաշոռ (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · io kazeo (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · gl quark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · nn kvarg (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ar كُوَارْك (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · dsb twarog (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · sv kvark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · wym twiöeg (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ka ხაჭო (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · hu túró (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ckb toraq (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · fr maquée (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · lv biezpiens (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · es quark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · fi rahka (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · sv kesella (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ja クォークチーズ (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · inh кӏолд (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · az kəsmik (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · sh kvàrgl (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · fr caillé (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · cs tvaroh (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ur کوارک (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ce кӏалд (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · xmf ხაჭო (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · hsb twaroh (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · sk tvaroh (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · cv тӑпӑрчӑ (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · fr faisselle (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · tr kesmik (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · sh ква̀ргл (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · sva ნაჴიჩუ̂ (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · fa کوارک (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · et kohupiim (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · lv kupuša piens (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · id quark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · uk сир (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · lt varškės sūris (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · fr fromage blanc (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · pt quark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · olo ruahto (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · nl kwark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · lb stoffi (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · be тваро́г (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · da kvark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ba эремсек (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · hi क्वार्क (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · wa makêye (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · bn কোয়ার্ক (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · nl plattekaas (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ca quark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ko 크바르크 (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · nb kvarg (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · pl ser biały (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ja クワルク (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · ru творо́г (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · pl biały ser (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · de Quark (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk) · bbl კალტ (soft, creamy, unripened cheese made from cow’s milk)

wikidata: Q259642

quark en · NOUN · etymology 3

Pronunciation

• kwäk (Received-Pronunciation)
• kwärk (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /kwɑːk/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (General-American) audio
• /kwɑɹk/ (General-American)

Etymology

Onomatopoeic, from the sound of the squawk.

Meanings

1. (informal, qualifier:Falkland Islands) The black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax).

Forms

Hypernyms

fermion · elementary particle · subatomic particle

Hyponyms

beauty quark · down quark · bottom quark · charm quark · top quark · strange quark · truth quark · up quark

Synonyms

quark · quawk