Particle Definition and Examples in English Grammar

(1) A particle is a word that does not change its form through inflection and does not easily
fit into the established system of parts of speech.

Many particles are closely linked to verbs to form multi-word verbs, such as go away.
Other particles include to used with an infinitive and not (a negative particle).

(2) In tagmemics, the term particle refers to "a linguistic unit seen as a discrete entity,
definable in terms of its features" (Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 2008).

Etymology
From the Latin, "a share, part"

EXAMPLES AND OBSERVATIONS

"Particles are short words . . . that with just one or two exceptions are all
prepositions unaccompanied by any complement of their own. Some of the most
common prepositions belonging to the particle category . . .: along, away, back, by,
down, forward, in, off, on, out, over, round, under, up."
(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey Pullum, A Student's Introduction to English
Grammar. Cambridge University Press, 2006)