Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. Atomic theory traces its origins to an ancient philosophical tradition known as atomism. According to this idea, if one were to take a lump of matter and cut it into ever smaller pieces, one would eventually reach a point where the pieces could not be further cut into anything smaller. The first study of atoms was actually done 2500 years before Dalton in the hindu text "Vaisesika sutra" proposed by acharya kannada which referred atoms as "PARMANU". Later on Ancient Greek philosophers called these hypothetical ultimate particles of matter atomos, a word which meant "uncut".

In the early 1800s, the scientist John Dalton noticed that chemical substances seemed to combine and break down into other substances by weight in proportions that suggested that each chemical element is ultimately made up of tiny indivisible particles of consistent weight. Shortly after 1850, certain physicists developed the kinetic theory of gases and of heat, which mathematically modelled the behavior of gases by assuming that they were made of particles. In the early 20th century, Albert Einstein and Jean Perrin proved that Brownian motion (the erratic motion of pollen grains in water) is caused by the action of water molecules; this third line of evidence silenced remaining doubts among scientists as to whether atoms and molecules were real. Throughout the nineteenth century, some scientists had cautioned that the evidence for atoms was indirect, and therefore atoms might not actually be real, but only seem to be real.

By the early 20th century, scientists had developed fairly detailed and precise models for the structure of matter, which led to more rigorously-defined classifications for the tiny invisible particles that make up ordinary matter. An atom is now defined as the basic particle that composes a chemical element. Around the turn of the 20th century, physicists discovered that the particles that chemists called "atoms" are in fact agglomerations of even smaller particles (subatomic particles), but scientists kept the name out of convention. The term elementary particle is now used to refer to particles that are actually indivisible.