An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. hydrogen ion, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis acid.
Zinc, a typical metal, reacting with hydrochloric acid, a typical acid
Svante Arrhenius
Hydrochloric acid (in beaker) reacting with ammonia fumes to produce ammonium chloride (white smoke).
This is an ideal titration curve for alanine, a diprotic amino acid. Point 2 is the first equivalent point where the amount of NaOH added equals the amount of alanine in the original solution.
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol p, H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 e (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton-to-electron mass ratio). Protons and neutrons, each with masses of approximately one atomic mass unit, are jointly referred to as "nucleons" (particles present in atomic nuclei).
Ernest Rutherford at the first Solvay Conference, 1911