proton

UK/ˈpɹəʊ.tɒn/US/ˈpɹoʊ.tɑn/

nounB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,069 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: protons

A proton is a positive particle in the middle of an atom. A proton beam, the proton count, proton and neutron.

How many an atom has decides which element it is, and nothing else does: one makes hydrogen, six makes carbon. Proton beam therapy treats tumours by stopping the beam at a chosen depth, which spares the tissue beyond.

Definitions of proton

1nounprotonA positive particle in the middle of an atom.B1+
“A hydrogen atom has just one proton and one electron.”

proton is a particle.

Where it comes from

Greek proton means the first thing, from protos, first. Rutherford named it in the 1920s.

Ancient Greek
πρῶτος
English, today
proton

Built from

πρῶτος · Ancient Greek — first

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πρῶτος. Ancient Greek πρῶτον, neuter of πρῶτος (“first”). physics {{coin|en|nat=New

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Science & Space

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proton in the wild

The rules above do not always apply to exotic atoms which contain short-lived elementary particles other than protons, neutrons and electrons.
Atomic number
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol p, H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 e (elementary charge).
Proton
One or more protons are present in the nucleus of every atom.
Proton
According to the Standard Model, the proton, a type of baryon, is stable because baryon number is conserved.
Proton decay
Since protons are the lightest baryons in the model, they cannot decay into other particles on their own and are therefore stable.
Proton decay

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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