Standard Lemma guide

positron

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈpɒz.ɪ.tɹɒn/
  • US: /ˈpɑ.zɪ.tɹɑn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P AA1 Z AH0 T R AA2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The antimatter equivalent of an electron, having the same mass but a positive charge.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: particle

Topics: natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics

Examples

  • The notion of a positron weapon remains the stuff of science fiction.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an elementary particle with positive charge; interaction of a positron and an electron results in annihilation

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: antielectron

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: antilepton

History

Etymology

From positive + -tron (electron). Coined by American physicist Carl Anderson in 1932 to replace the earlier term antielectron.

Across languages

Translations

50 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: بُوزِيتْرُون (buzitrūn) — positron
  • Armenian: պոզիտրոն (pozitron) — positron
  • Basque: positroi — positron
  • Belarusian: пазітро́н (pazitrón) — positron
  • Bengali: পজিট্রন (pojiṭron) — positron
  • Bulgarian: позитро́н (pozitrón) — positron
  • Catalan: positró — positron
  • Catalan: positó — positron
  • Chinese Mandarin: 正電子 /正电子 (zhèngdiànzǐ) — positron
  • Chinese Mandarin: 陽電子 /阳电子 (yángdiànzǐ) — positron
  • Chinese Mandarin: 正子 (zhèngzǐ) — positron
  • Czech: pozitron — positron
  • Dutch: positron — positron
  • Esperanto: pozitrono — positron
  • Finnish: positroni — positron
  • French: positron — positron
  • French: positon — positron
  • German: Positron — positron
  • Greek: ποζιτρόνιο (pozitrónio) — positron
  • Hebrew: פּוֹזִיטְרוֹן (pozitrón) — positron
  • Hindi: धनाणु (dhanāṇu) — positron
  • Hungarian: pozitron — positron
  • Icelandic: jáeind — positron
  • Ido: antielektrono — positron
  • Irish: posatrón — positron
  • Italian: positrone — positron
  • Japanese: 陽電子 (yōdenshi) — positron
  • Japanese: ポジトロン (pojitoron) — positron
  • Khmer: វិជ្ជមានាណូ (vɨccĕəʼmiəniənou) — positron
  • Korean: 양전자 (yangjeonja) — positron
  • Latvian: pozitrons — positron
  • Lithuanian: pozitronas — positron
  • Marathi: धनाणू (dhanāṇū) — positron
  • Norwegian Bokmål: positron — positron
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: positron — positron
  • Persian: پوزیترون (pozitrôn) — positron
  • Polish: pozyton — positron
  • Brazilian Portuguese: pósitron — positron
  • European Portuguese: positrão — positron
  • Romanian: pozitron — positron
  • Russian: позитро́н (pozitrón) — positron
  • Serbo-Croatian: по̏зитро̄н — positron
  • Serbo-Croatian: pȍzitrōn — positron
  • Slovene: pozitron — positron
  • Spanish: positrón — positron
  • Swedish: positron — positron
  • Tagalog: tahasik — positron
  • Thai: โพซิตรอน (poo-sí-dtrɔn) — positron
  • Turkish: pozitron — positron
  • Ukrainian: позитро́н (pozytrón) — positron