PARTICLE

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Latin particula, from diminutive of part-, pars Date: 14th century 1. a minute quantity or fragment, a relatively small or the smallest discrete portion or amount of something, a clause or article of a composition or document, any of the basic units of matter and energy (as a molecule, atom, proton, electron, or photon), a unit of speech expressing some general aspect of meaning or some connective or limiting relation and including the articles, most prepositions and conjunctions, and some interjections and adverbs , a small eucharistic wafer distributed to a Roman Catholic layman at Communion