Webster's English Dictionary

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particle

par.ti.cle \'pa:rt-i-k*l\ n [ME, fr. L particula, fr. dim. of part-, pars] 
   archaic  1: a clause or article of a composition or document  2: one of the 
   minute subdivisions of matter  3a: a minute quantity or fragment  3b: the 
   smallest possible portion or amount of something  4a: a unit of speech 
   serving almost as a loose affix, expressing some gener al aspect of meaning 
   or some connective or limiting relation, and including the articles, most 
   prepositions and conjunctions, and some interjections and adverbs 4b: an 
   element that resembles a word but that is used only in composition ( as un- 
   in unfair and -ward in backward) 5: a small eucharistic wafer distributed 
   to a Roman Catholic layman at Comm union