An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A possible type of decay of a → radionuclide or → elementary particle.
In general, a given particle may decay by more than one decay mode. Usually the number of decay modes is one or two. There are, however, → nuclides
which have many decay modes; for example the nuclide ¹¹Li has seven decay modes.

See also: → decay; → mode.