antimatter

noun

an·​ti·​mat·​ter
ˈan-tē-ˌma-tər,
ˈan-ˌtī- How to pronounce antimatter (audio)
: matter composed of antiparticles

Examples of antimatter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But some physicists pondered whether antimatter might instead be repulsed by gravity. Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 27 Sep. 2023 That there was enough leftover matter after this great annihilation to form galaxies, stars, planets and even us but almost no antimatter is known as the matter-antimatter imbalance. Luke Caldwell, Scientific American, 16 Jan. 2024 Even that tiny imbalance was sufficient to wipe out all of the antimatter in the universe in about one second. Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 27 Sep. 2023 Some of them seek to offer matter the upper hand by introducing new particles that decay, producing more matter than antimatter in the process, or that interact differently with matter and antimatter. Luke Caldwell, Scientific American, 16 Jan. 2024 When antimatter meets matter, both particles are annihilated and their combined masses are converted into pure energy. Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 27 Sep. 2023 In other words, does an antimatter droplet fall down or up? Rahul Rao, Popular Science, 27 Sep. 2023 During this process the beauty quark turns into a strange quark and produces a pair of leptons—specifically, a lepton and its antimatter partner. Andreas Crivellin, Scientific American, 23 Oct. 2022 Its precise descriptions of force fields and antimatter cannons seemed ready-made for the screen. Samuel Horti, New York Times, 6 Nov. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'antimatter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1934, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of antimatter was in 1934

Dictionary Entries Near antimatter

Cite this Entry

“Antimatter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antimatter. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

antimatter

noun
an·​ti·​mat·​ter ˈant-i-ˌmat-ər How to pronounce antimatter (audio)
: matter whose parts match parts of ordinary matter except in having some opposite properties (as a positive instead of a negative charge)

More from Merriam-Webster on antimatter

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