Dictionary entry

Corpuscular

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Cor‐pus″cu‐lar (k?r–p?s″k?–l?r), a. [Cf. F. corpusculaire.] Pertaining to, or composed of, corpuscles, or small particles.

Corpuscular philosophy, that which attempts to account for the phenomena of nature, by the motion, figure, rest, position, etc., of the minute particles of matter. — Corpuscular theory(Opt.), the theory enunciated by Sir Isaac Newton, that light consists in the emission and rapid progression of minute particles or corpuscles. The theory is now generally rejected, and supplanted by the undulatory theory.