quark /kwɑːk, kwɔːk $ kwɔːrk, kwɑːrk/
noun [countable][
Date: 1900-2000;
Origin: Invented by Murray Gell-Mann (born 1929), U.S. scientist, based on the phrase "three quarks for Muster Mark" in Finnegans Wake (1939) by James Joyce; because originally there were thought to be three quarks]
technical a very small part of something, which is smaller than an atom
[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲