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Glite Dictionary
antiatom

antiatom

1 9.9
An atom made of particles that are the opposites of normal particles
  • noun
  • /ˈæntiˌætəm/
  • Specialized
: antiátomo
  • The study focused on understanding the properties of antiatoms compared to their matter counterparts.

Examples

  • Such experiments proved that H could be formed, but the antiatoms were moving far too fast to allow high-precision spectroscopic tests of CPT.

    Academic text (2002)

  • The scientists designed an experiment to create and observe antiatoms in a controlled environment.

  • By colliding high-energy particles, researchers generated multiple antiatoms for experimental analysis.

Surface Forms

antiatom singular
antiatoms plural

Morphology

antiatom = atom (semi-transparent) = anti + atom

The word is clearly built from anti- + atom, but the scientific meaning 'atom made of antiparticles' is specialized rather than a routine everyday composition.

Etymology

Antiatom comes from two parts: anti- meaning 'opposite', the same anti- you see in antivirus, and atom from a word meaning 'uncut' or 'not able to be cut'. So an antiatom is an atom made of 'opposite' particles, which explains its modern meaning as an atom built from antiparticles.