The Collaborative International Dictionary
Corpuscular \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.
WordNet
n. (physics) the theory that light is transmitted as a stream of particles [syn: corpuscular theory of light] [ant: wave theory, wave theory]
Usage examples of "corpuscular theory".
This was greeted by some as vindicating the corpuscular theory, but it turns out that the same result can be derived from wave considerations too, although not as simply.
Concepts once abandoned, like the corpuscular theory of light or the transmutability of the elements, have to be looked at again, centuries later.