a theory describing the strong interaction in terms of quarks and gluons, with the colour of quarks used as an analogue of charge and the gluon as an analogue of the photon
Abbreviation: QCD
Word origin
C20: chromodynamics from chromo- (referring to quark colour) + dynamics, modelled on quantum electrodynamics
quantum chromodynamics in American English
[with sing. v.]
a theory that describes the forces and interactions of quarks and gluons in hadrons