n.
- Something that occupies space and can be perceived by one or more senses; a physical body, a physical substance, or the universe as a whole.
- Physics. Something that has mass and exists as a solid, liquid, gas, or plasma.
- A specific type of substance: inorganic matter.
- Discharge or waste, such as pus or feces, from a living organism.
- Philosophy. In Aristotelian and Scholastic use, that which is in itself undifferentiated and formless and which, as the subject of change and development, receives form and becomes substance.
- The substance of thought or expression as opposed to the manner in which it is stated or conveyed.
- A subject of concern, feeling, or action: matters of foreign policy; a personal matter. See synonyms at subject.
- Trouble or difficulty: What's the matter with your car?
- An approximated quantity, amount, or extent: The construction will last a matter of years.
- Something printed or otherwise set down in writing: reading matter.
- Something sent by mail.
- Printing.
- Composed type.
- Material to be set in type.
To be of importance: "Love is most nearly itself/When here and now cease to matter" (T.S. Eliot). See synonyms at count1.
idioms:
as a matter of fact
- In fact; actually.
- So far as that is concerned; as for that.
- Regardless of: "Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take,/No matter where it's going" (Edna St. Vincent Millay).
[Middle English, from Old French matere, from Latin māteria, wood, timber, matter, from māter, mother (because the woody part was seen as the source of growth).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
