hypercharge: Meaning and Definition of

hy•per•charge

Pronunciation: (hī'pur-chärj"), [key]
— n. Physics.
  1. a quantum number assigned to baryons and mesons, equal to B + S, where B is the baryon number and S is the strangeness.
  2. the quantum number equal to B + S + C, where C is the charm.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.