强相互作用是作用于强子之间的力，是所知四种宇宙间基本作用力最强的，也是作用距离第二短的（大约在 10 m 范围内，比弱交互作用的范围大）。另外三种相互作用分别是引力、电磁力及弱相互作用。核子间的核力就是强相互作用。它抵抗了质子之间的强大的电磁力，维持了原子核的稳定。强相互作用也将夸克基本粒子结合成为质子及中子等强子，这也是组成大部份物质的粒子。而且一般质子或中子里，大部份的质能是以强相互作用场能量的形式存在，夸克只提供了1%的质能。

强相互作用可以在二个地方看到：较大的尺度（约1至3飞米）下，强相互作用将质子及中子结合成为原子的原子核，较小的尺度（约0.8飞米，约为核子的尺寸）下，强相互作用将夸克结合，成为质子、中子或其他强子。强相互作用的作用力非常强，大到束缚一个夸克的能量可以转换为新的夸克对的质量，强相互作用的这个性质称为夸克禁闭。

In particle physics, the strong interaction is the mechanism responsible for the strong nuclear force (also called the strong force, nuclear strong force), one of the four known fundamental interactions of nature, the others being electromagnetism, the weak interaction and gravitation. Despite only operating at a distance of a femtometer, it is the strongest force, being approximately 100 times stronger than electromagnetism, a million times stronger than weak interaction and 10 times stronger than gravitation at that range. It ensures the stability of ordinary matter, confining quarks into hadron particles, such as the proton and neutron, the largest components of the mass of ordinary matter. Furthermore, most of the mass-energy of a common proton or neutron is in the form of the strong force field energy; the individual quarks provide only about 1% of the mass-energy of a proton.