material

Of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical.

Adjective

  1. Of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical.
    • This compound has a number of interesting material properties.
    • the material elements of the universe - 1913, Alfred Bowyer Sharpe, Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Evil:
  2. Of, relating to, or affecting physical well-being; corporeal; bodily.
    • material needs

    Antonyms: spiritual

  3. Of or relating to the matter of reasoning, as distinguished from the form of it, especially empirical.
    • material cause
    • the material aspect of being
  4. Having real importance or great consequences; significant; substantial.
    • found a material difference between two things
    • You've made several material contributions to this project.
    • This is the most material fact in this lawsuit.

    Antonyms: immaterial

  5. Relating to or concerned with what is purely physical rather than intellectual or spiritual, especially excessively so; materialistic.
    • the material world
    • interested only in material progress
    • Don't let material concerns get in the way of living a happy life.
  6. Full of substance or otherwise meaning.

    Synonyms: bulky massive solid meaty

  7. In an important degree.

Origin

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.

Forms

more material most material

Derived

material breach material cause material nonimplication unmaterial

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.
    • Asphalt, composed of oil and sand, is a widely used material for roads.
    • In trumpets for assisting the hearing, all reverbation of the trumpet must be avoided. It must be made thick, of the least elastic materials, and covered with cloth externally. For all reverbation lasts for a short...
    • Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite,...

    Synonyms: raw material

  2. A person, or people collectively, who are qualified or suited for a certain position or activity.
    • boy/girlfriend material
    • marriage material
    • We have lots of presidential material in various public offices.
  3. Apparatus for doing or making something.
    • Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never...
  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.
    • teaching materials
    • We were a warm-up act at the time; we didn't have enough original material to headline.
    • With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound...
  5. Fabric, which can be made into a garments, curtains, etc; especially, woven fabric (cloth).
    • a piece of material
    • You'll need about a yard of material to make this.
    • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. There was a great deal of them, lavish both in material and in workmanship. - 1977, Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN, page 4:
  6. The elements, constituents or substance of which something physical or non-physical composed of or can be made of.
    • The solid materials of the mixture will settle to the bottom of the container.
    • The material of his character was basically good.
    • […] I beleeve that as they ſay of the materialls of the world, they would ſoone diſolve if the ſoule of it were taken away […] - 1642, Daniel Rogers […], Naaman the Syrian, his Disease and Cvre, London: Th. Harper for...
  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.

    Synonyms: matts

  10. The materiel of an army.
  11. Things that are material.

Forms

materials

Synonyms

material

Hyponyms

adobe brick cement chemical substance clay composite concrete fabric glass metal mortar paper plastic stone wood

Related

matter materiel substantial for material's use as an adjective

Derived

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

Verb

  1. To form from matter; to materialize.
    • I believe that the whole frame of a beast doth perish, and is left in the same state after death as before it was materialled unto life. - 1642, [Thomas Browne], “(please specify the page)”, in Religio Medici, London:...

Forms

materials materialing materialling materialed materialled