In physics, a particle is a fundamental or elementary unit of matter or energy. It refers to a localized object that exhibits certain properties, such as mass, charge, and spin.

The standard model of quantum physics is like a special chart that helps scientists understand and organize all particles. It tells us that there are two main categories of particles: matter particles and force particles.

Matter particles are the ones that make up things like you, me, and everything we see. They are further divided into two groups: quarks and leptons.

Quarks are like the tiniest building blocks of matter, and they come in different types called flavors, such as up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. They can be combined together to form "composite particles" like protons or neutrons.
Leptons include particles like neutrinos which have no electrical charge, or electrons which are found in atoms, and they have a negative charge.

The other category is force particles, also called bosons.

These particles are responsible for carrying forces between matter particles. They help things stick together or repel each other. The force particles include the photon, which carries electromagnetic energy (they form light), the W and Z bosons, which help with the weak nuclear force and gluons that mediate the strong nuclear force by interacting with quarks.