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In chemistry and physics, an atom (Greek ἄτομος or átomos meaning "indivisible") is the smallest particle still characterizing a chemical element.[1] (átomos is usually translated as "indivisible" or "uncuttable." Until the advent of quantum mechanics, dividing a material object was invariably equated with cutting it.) Whereas the word atom originally denoted a particle that cannot be cut into smaller particles, the atoms of modern parlance are composed of subatomic particles: