English Explanatory Dictionary

matter

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Material; substance.
  2. Anything with mass and volume.
  3. Matter made up of normal particles, not antiparticles.
  4. A kind of substance.
  5. Printed material, especially in books or magazines.
  6. Aristotelian: undeveloped potentiality subject to change and development; formlessness. Matter receives form, and becomes substance.
  7. An affair, condition, or subject, especially one of concern or (especially when preceded by the) one that is problematic.
  8. An approximate amount or extent.
  9. Legal services provided by a lawyer or firm to their client in relation to a particular issue.
  10. Essence; pith; embodiment.
  11. (The) inducing cause or reason, especially of anything disagreeable or distressing.
  12. Pus.
verb
  1. To be important.
  2. To care about, to mind; to find important.
  3. To form pus or matter, as an abscess; to maturate.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈmæt.ə/ /ˈmæt.ɚ/ [ˈmæɾ.ɚ] En-us-matter.ogg [ˈmæɾ.ə] /ˈmɛt.ə/ [ˈmɛɾ.ə]

Word forms

matter matters mattering mattered

Etymology

From Middle English matere, mater, from Anglo-Norman matere, materie, from Old French materie, matiere, from Latin māteria (“wood”), from māter (“mother”), in which case cognate with Old Armenian մայր (mayr, “cedar”) and մայրի (mayri, “forest”). Doublet of Madeira, mata, mater, matrix, and mother. Displaced Middle English andweorc, andwork (“material, matter”), from Old English andweorc (“matter, substance, material”), Old English intinga (“matter, affair, business”).

Synonyms

material stuff substance hyle signify

Antonyms

antimatter

Derived words

a little matter a matter another matter anti-matter as a matter of fact as a matter of factly as a matter of law a small matter back matter back-matter baryonic dark matter baryonic matter biomatter body matter bymatter cold dark matter condensed matter condensed matter physicist condensed matter physics dark matter degenerate matter dry matter end matter fact of the matter fæcal matter faecal matter fecal matter for that matter front matter front-matter gray matter grey matter hot dark matter inscribed matter let the matter drop light matter magmatter matter at hand matterative matterful mattergy matterless matterlike matternet Matter of Britain matter of course matter of fact matter-of-fact matter-of-factish matter-of-factly matter-of-factness matter of law matter of life and death matter of life or death matter of record matter of time matter painting mattersome matterwave mattery

Translations

Albanian: lëndë Arabic: مَادَّة Armenian: նյութ Assamese: পদাৰ্থ Azerbaijani: maddə Azerbaijani: materiya Bashkir: матдә Belarusian: матэ́рыя Bengali: পদার্থ Bihari: पदार्थ Bulgarian: мате́рия Burmese: ဒြပ် Catalan: matèria Chinese Cantonese: 物質 /物质 Eastern Min Chinese: 物質 /物质 Chinese: 物質 /物质 Chinese Mandarin: 物質 /物质 Wu Chinese: 物質 /物质 Czech: hmota Danish: stof Doteli: पदार्थ Dutch: materie Esperanto: materio Estonian: aine Finnish: aine French: matière West-Frisian: matearje Galician: materia Georgian: მატერია German: Materie Greek: ύλη Ancient Greek: ὕλη Gujarati: પદાર્થ Hebrew: חומר \ חֹמֶר Hindi: पदार्थ Hindi: माद्दा Hungarian: anyag Hunsrik: Materje Icelandic: efni Indonesian: materi Irish: damhna Italian: materia
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