Electrons

How to spell electrons

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce electrons

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does electrons mean?

1. nounNegatively charged subatomic particles that orbit the nucleus of an atom and carry electric current.

Electrons in a sentence

• The teacher explained how electrons move through a copper wire to create a current.

• In a neutral atom the number of electrons equals the number of protons.

Where does electrons come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek elektron, which literally meant 'amber', the fossilised tree resin that ancient Greeks noticed could attract light objects after being rubbed. That property of static attraction gave the resin its scientific fame, and in the 1600s the Latinised form electricus was coined to describe substances that behaved like rubbed amber. The Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney took the same root and, in 1891, proposed 'electron' as the name for the fundamental unit of electric charge. The suffix -on came to mark elementary particles, later giving us relatives such as proton and neutron. The plural simply adds -s, but the spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: writers can blur the 'tron' and the leading e, so remembering the amber root 'electr-' anchors it.

How the word is built

• electr- (from Greek elektron: amber)
• -on (suffix for an elementary particle)
• -s (plural)