photon

See also: Photon

English

Etymology

From photo- +‎ -on. Coined by American physicist Leonard Troland in 1916 as a unit of light hitting the retina, and later popularized in a more modern sense by Gilbert N. Lewis, with the term gaining acceptance in the physics community by the late 1920s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfəʊtɒn/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊtɒn

Noun

photon (plural photons)

1. (physics) The quantum of light and other electromagnetic energy, regarded as a discrete particle having zero rest mass, no electric charge, and an indefinitely long lifetime. It is a gauge boson.
   • 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist:

     The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.

Derived terms

• antiphoton
• dual photon absorptiometry
• last photon orbit
• notoph
• photon belt
• photon circle
• photonic
• photonics
• photon sail
• photon sphere
• photon tunnelling
• proto-photon
• soft photon
• super-photon

 

Translations

quantum of light

• Arabic: فُوتُون m (futūn)
• Armenian: ֆոտոն (hy) (foton)
• Asturian: fotón m
• Basque: fotoi (eu)
• Belarusian: фато́н m (fatón)
• Bengali: ফোটন (bn) (phōṭon)
• Bulgarian: фото́н m (fotón)
• Burmese: ဖိုတွန် (hpui-twan)
• Catalan: fotó (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 光子 (kng chú)

  Mandarin: 光子 (zh) (guāngzǐ)

• Czech: foton (cs) m
• Danish: foton c
• Dutch: foton (nl) n, lichtdeeltje (nl)
• Esperanto: fotono
• Estonian: footon (et), valguseosake
• Finnish: fotoni (fi), valohiukkanen
• French: photon (fr) m
• Galician: fotón (gl) m
• Georgian: ფოტონი (poṭoni)
• German: Photon (de) n, Lichtteilchen
• Greek: φωτόνιο (el) n (fotónio)
• Gujarati: પ્રકાશાણુ m (prakāśāṇu)
• Hebrew: פוטון (he) m
• Hindi: प्रकाशाणु (prakāśāṇu), फ़ोटोन (foṭon)
• Hungarian: foton (hu)
• Icelandic: ljóseind (is) f, fótóna f, (uncommon) ljósögn f
• Ido: fotono (io)
• Italian: fotone (it) m
• Japanese: 光子 (ja) (こうし, kōshi)
• Khmer: អាភាណូ (aapʰie noo)
• Korean: 광자(光子) (ko) (gwangja)
• Low German:

  German Low German: Lichtdeelken

• Macedonian: фотон m (foton)
• Malagasy: voan-kazavana (mg)
• Malay: foton (ms)
• Maori: pūaho
• Marathi: प्रकाशाणू m (prakāśāṇū)
• Mongolian: фотон (foton) ᠹᠣᠲ᠋ᠣᠨ (foton)
• Nepali: प्रकाशाणु (prakāśāṇu)
• Norwegian: foton n, lyskvant

  Bokmål: lyskvant, foton n

  Nynorsk: lyskvant, foton n

• Persian: فوتون (fa) (foton)
• Polish: foton (pl) m
• Portuguese:

  Brazilian: fóton (pt) m

  European: fotão (pt) m

• Romanian: foton (ro) m
• Russian: фото́н (ru) m (fotón)
• Sanskrit: प्रकाशाणु m (prakāśāṇu)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: фо̀то̄н m

  Roman: fòtōn (sh) m

• Spanish: fotón (es) m
• Swahili: fotoni
• Swedish: foton (sv) c
• Tagalog: sugapik
• Tamil: ஒளியன் (oḷiyaṉ)
• Thai: โฟตอน (fohdton)
• Turkish: foton (tr)
• Ukrainian: фото́н m (fotón)
• Vietnamese: quang tử (光子)
• Võro: foodon

See also

• phonon
• plasmon

Anagrams

• Hopton, notoph

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔ.tɔ̃/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

photon m (plural photons)

1. (physics) photon

Further reading

• “photon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.