English Explanatory Dictionary

material

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical.
  2. Of, relating to, or affecting physical well-being; corporeal; bodily.
  3. Of or relating to the matter of reasoning, as distinguished from the form of it, especially empirical.
  4. Having real importance or great consequences; significant; substantial.
  5. Relating to or concerned with what is purely physical rather than intellectual or spiritual, especially excessively so; materialistic.
  6. Full of substance or otherwise meaning.
  7. In an important degree.
noun
  1. A basic matter (as metal, wood, plastic, fiber, etc.) from which the whole or the greater part of something physical (as a machine, tool, building, fabric, etc.) is made.
  2. A person, or people collectively, who are qualified or suited for a certain position or activity.
  3. Apparatus for doing or making something.
  4. Something (as data, observations, perceptions or ideas) that may be incorporated, elaborated or otherwise reworked into a finished form or new form, or may serve as the basis for arriving at interpretations, judgments or conclusions.
  5. Fabric, which can be made into a garments, curtains, etc; especially, woven fabric (cloth).
  6. The elements, constituents or substance of which something physical or non-physical composed of or can be made of.
  7. An element of a design language associated with a certain style of rendering on the display.
  8. All of a player's pieces and pawns on the chessboard, excluding the king.
  9. The ingredients for making whisky punch.
  10. The materiel of an army.
  11. Things that are material.
verb
  1. To form from matter; to materialize.

Pronunciation

/məˈtɪə.ɹi.əl/ /məˈtɪɹ.i.əl/ en-us-material.ogg /mɛˈʈir(ɪ)jəl/

Word forms

material more material most material materials materialing materialling materialed materialled

Etymology

From Middle English material, from Late Latin māteriālis, from Latin māteria (“wood, material, substance”), from māter (“mother”). Displaced native Middle English andweorc, andwork (“material, matter”) (from Old English andweorc (“matter, substance, material”)). Doublet of materiel.

Synonyms

bulky massive solid meaty material raw material matts

Antonyms

spiritual immaterial

Related words

matter materiel substantial for material's use as an adjective

Derived words

material breach material cause material nonimplication unmaterial active material antimaterial archaeomaterial archeomaterial astromaterial bill of material bimaterial biomaterial bomb material building material child sexual abuse material collateral material composite material cryptomaterial ecomaterial genetic material genuine issue of material fact geomaterial hazardous material hazmat Kelvin-Voigt material material action material conditional material culture material fact material handling material heresy material implication materialisation materialise materialism materialist materialization materialize material logic materially materialness material noun material science materials science material support material witness metamaterial micromaterial multimaterial nanomaterial non-material nonmaterial positive material identification postmaterial postmaterialism postmaterialist raw material reading material shawl material sociomaterial

Translations

Arabic: مَادِّيّ Armenian: նյութական Belarusian: матэрыя́льны Bulgarian: материален Bulgarian: веществен Catalan: material Czech: materiálový Danish: materiel Dutch: materieel Dutch: materiële Esperanto: materia Finnish: materiaalinen Finnish: aineellinen Galician: material German: materiell Greek: υλικός Ancient Greek: ὑλικός Hungarian: anyagi Ido: materiala Irish: ábhartha Italian: materiale Latin: corporeus Macedonian: материја́лен Māori: ōkiko Middle English: material Middle English: beestly Middle English: bestial Norwegian: materiell Polish: materialny Portuguese: material Romanian: material Russian: мате́риа́льный Spanish: material Swedish: materiell Swedish: compounds with materia c and material Ukrainian: матеріа́льний Volapük: stöfik Bulgarian: материа́л Chinese Mandarin: 資料 /资料 Danish: materiale Danish: stof Dutch: materiaal Finnish: aineisto French: matériel French: documentation German: Material Hebrew: חומר Hebrew: חֹמֶר Hungarian: anyag Ingrian: materiala Japanese: 資料 Japanese: 題材 Korean: 자료 Latin: verba scriptoris Luxembourgish: Material Norwegian Bokmål: stoff Iranian Persian: مَطْلَب Portuguese: matéria Russian: материа́л Spanish: menaje Swedish: material
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