| GLUON | Virtual mass-free subatomic particle whose transmitted force binds quarks together (5) |
| QUARK | Subatomic particle whose flavors are scattered about this puzzle |
| MESON | Subatomic particle whose name derives from the Greek for "middle" |
| STRONGINTERACTION | The name for what binds protons and neutrons together and what binds quarks together (6,11) |
| BOSON | Particle whose name is one letter short of a Massachusetts city's |
| ATOMS | Particles whose name comes from the Greek for "uncuttable" |
| CHARM | In particle physics, one of the six flavours of quarks with top, bottom, up, down and strange that, along with leptons, form the basic building blocks of ordinary matter (5) |
| MUDDY | Setter's covering three quarks in a neutron - confused? (5) |
| JOYCE | Author who coined "quarks," whose six flavors appear in this puzzle's six groups of circled squares |
| HADRONS | They're composed of quarks (particles whose six flavors appear at the ends of the asterisked entries) |
| GLUONS | Particles believed to bind quarks together |
| ATOM | Tiny particle whose name means "indivisible", yet was split by Ernest Rutherford in 1917 (4) |
| ION | Particle whose name means "going" in Greek |
| HADRON | Type of subatomic particle made up of quarks |
| BARYON | Subatomic particle made of three quarks |
| FLAVOURS | In particle physics, quarks can be classified into six of these (8) |
| STRANGE | In particle physics, one of the six flavours of quarks; or, an attractor exhibiting chaotic behaviour |
| NEUTRON | Particle comprising one up and two down quarks |
| MESONS | Subatomic particles made up of quarks and antiquarks |
| BARYONS | Subatomic particles made up of three quarks |
