Eightfold Way
noun Physics.
a scheme for classifying hadrons according to a symmetry principle based on strangeness and isotopic spin: a forerunner of the quark model.
Origin of Eightfold Way
1925–30; so named because hadrons with low mass and spin form groups of eight; with jocular allusion to the
Eightfold Way of Buddhism (see
Eightfold Path)