substance

Dictionary: sub·stance   (sŭb'stəns)

1. 1. That which has mass and occupies space; matter.
   2. A material of a particular kind or constitution.
2. 1. Essential nature; essence.
   2. Gist; heart.
3. That which is solid and practical in character, quality, or importance: a plan without substance.
4. Density; body: Air has little substance.
5. Material possessions; goods; wealth: a person of substance.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin substantia, from substāns, substant-, present participle of substāre, to be present : sub-, sub- + stāre, to stand.]

SYNONYMS  substance, burden, core, gist, pith, purport. These nouns denote the essential import or significance of something spoken or written: the substance of his complaint; the burden of the President's speech; the core of an article; the gist of her argument; the pith of an essay; the purport of a document.

In general: physical material in solid, liquid, or gaseous form, composed of one or more chemical elements derived from animal, mineral, or vegetable sources.

Printing: basis weight of paper.

noun

1. That which occupies space and can be perceived by the senses: materiality, matter. See body/spirit.
2. That from which things are or can be made: material, matter, stuff. Idioms: grist for one's mill. See matter.
3. A basic trait or set of traits that define and establish the character of something: being, essence, essentiality, nature, quintessence, texture. See surface/depth.
4. The most central and material part: core, essence, gist, heart, kernel, marrow, meat, nub, pith, quintessence, root¹, soul, spirit, stuff. Law gravamen. See be.
5. The general sense or significance, as of an action or statement: amount, burden², drift, import, purport, tenor. Idioms: sum and substance, sum total. See meaning.
6. The thread or current of thought uniting or occurring in all the elements of a text or discourse: aim, burden², drift, intent, meaning, purport, tendency, tenor, thrust. See meaning.

Definition: wealth
Antonyms: poverty

There is such a substantial difference among the different kinds of addictive drugs and drinks that it's hard to think of a name that would characterize them all. They come in the form of pills and powders, solids and liquids; they are swallowed, smoked, injected, applied to the skin. They have different effects on mind and body. Is there a word to distinguish them from harmless food and drink? There wasn't. But experts in the treatment of addiction needed a label for what they were treating, and so did politicians, educators, and the public. In the 1970s, therefore, some deep thinker noticed that all the mind-altering agents had one thing in common: they were substances. So substance abuse became the name for "the overdoing of anything that one could ingest." The term was in use by 1975, when an article in U.S. News and World Report mentioned "the office of substance abuse services in the Michigan Department of Public Health."

Substance itself goes back a long time in English and even longer in Latin. Sub means "under" and stance means "stand," so originally substance was that which "stands under" (or underlies, as we would say) its outward appearance. In the science and philosophy of the Middle Ages, subtle distinctions were drawn between this substance, the essential nature of something, and accident, the superficial features.

It is doubtful, however, that the coiners of substance abuse were thinking of medieval philosophy. More likely, they were borrowing the ordinary modern meaning of substance: "any kind of matter or material." The only problem was to distinguish their particular new use of substance from the more general. This they did by putting it in specific phrases. Substance abuse was the first of these. More recently, at colleges and universities, certain student residences have been specifically designated substance-free, that is, places where alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other addictive substances will not be allowed.

(Latin, sub, under, stare, stand: that which stands under) Many concerns and disputes cluster around the ideas associated with this term. The substance of a thing may be: (i) its essence, or that which makes it what it is. This will ensure that the substance of a thing is that which remains through change in its properties. In Aristotle (Metaphysics Z, vii) this essence becomes more than just the matter, but a unity of matter and form. (ii) That which can exist by itself, or does not need a subject for existence, in the way that properties need objects; hence (iii) that which bears properties. A substance is then the subject of predication, that about which things are said as opposed to the things said about it. Substance in the last two senses stands opposed to modifications such as quantity, quality, relations, etc. It is hard to keep this set of ideas distinct from the doubtful notion of a substratum, something distinct from any of its properties, and hence incapable of characterization. The notion of substance tends to disappear in empiricist thought in favour of the sensible qualities of things, with the notion of that in which they inhere giving way to an empirical notion of their regular concurrence. But this in turn is problematic, since it only makes sense to talk of the concurrence of instances of qualities, not of qualities themselves. So the problem of what it is for a quality to be instanced remains.

Metaphysics inspired by modern science tends to reject the concept of substance in favour of concepts such as that of a field or a process, each of which may seem to provide a better example of a fundamental physical category.

Essence; the material or necessary component of something.

A matter of substance, as distinguished from a matter of form, with respect to pleadings, affidavits, indictments, and other legal instruments, entails the essential sufficiency, validity, or merits of the instrument, as opposed to its method or style.

The material constituting an organ or body.

• black s. — substantia nigra.
• controlled s. — see controlled substances act.
• depressor s. — a substance that tends to decrease activity or blood pressure.
• gray s. — nerve tissue composed of predominantly nerve cell bodies, unmyelinated nerve fibers, and supporting tissue. See also gray matter.
• ground s. — the gel-like material in which connective tissue cells and fibers are embedded.
• medullary s. — 1. the white matter of the central nervous system, consisting of axons and their myelin sheaths.
— 2. the soft, marrow-like substance of the interior of such structures as bone, kidney and adrenal gland.
• s. P — an undecapeptide present in the intestine, where it induces contraction of the intestine and dilatation of blood vessels; it is also present in a number of neuronal pathways in the brain and in primary sensory fibers of peripheral nerves, and may be a neurotransmitter associated with transmission of pain impulses.
• perforated s. — 1. anterior perforated substance, an area anterolateral to each optic tract, pierced by branches of the anterior and middle cerebral arteries.
— 2. posterior perforated substance, an area between the cerebral peduncles, pierced by branches of the posterior cerebral arteries.
• pressor s. — a substance that raises blood pressure.
• reticular s. — the netlike mass of threads seen in erythrocytes after vital staining.
• slow-reacting s. — see slow-reacting substance.
• threshold s's — those substances (e.g. glucose) excreted into the urine only when their concentration in plasma exceeds a certain value.
• white s. — tissue consisting mostly of myelinated nerve fibers and constituting the conducting portion of the brain and spinal cord; see also white matter.

Look up substance in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The word substance originates from Latin substantia, literally meaning "standing under". The word was used to translate the Greek philosophical term ousia.

may refer to:

• Substance theory, in philosophy, that element of an object without which it would not exist, or what exists only by itself (causa sui)
• Chemical substance, in chemistry, any material with a definite chemical composition
• Substance (rapper)
• Substance (Joy Division album)
• Substance (New Order album)
• Substance, a song by Haste The Day from the EP That They May Know You and redone for the album Burning Bridges
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, a tactical espionage video game

See also:

• matter

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Common misspelling(s) of substance

• substace

Dansk (Danish)
n. - substans, masse, indhold, hold, realitet, soliditet, formue

idioms:

• in substance    i det væsentlige, i hovedsagen
• of substance    med substans
• substance abuse    stofmisbrug
• the substance of    indholdet af, sagligheden af

Nederlands (Dutch)
substantie, stof, essentie, stevigheid, bezit, gewicht, inhoud

Français (French)
n. - (Chim) substance, essentiel, substance, poids, fondement, fond, quelque chose d'important, nanti (arch)

idioms:

• in substance    en substance
• of substance    nanti, substantiel, (qch) d'important
• substance abuse    abus de substances toxiques
• the substance of    la substance de, l'essentiel de

Deutsch (German)
n. - Substanz, Stoff, Inhalt, Kern

idioms:

• in substance    im wesentlichen
• of substance    vermögend
• substance abuse    Drogenmißbrauch
• the substance of    der Kern von

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ουσία, ουσιώδες συστατικό, αντιστοιχία προς την πραγματικότητα, ύλη, υλικό, περιουσία, πλούτος, εθιστική ουσία

idioms:

• in substance    ουσιαστικά, στην ουσία
• of substance    με περιεχόμενο, με ουσία, εύπορος, ευκατάστατος
• substance abuse    κατάχρηση εθιστικών ουσιών
• the substance of    η ουσία του (π.χ. θέματος)

Italiano (Italian)
sostanza, importanza, rilievo, essenza

idioms:

• in substance    in sostanza
• of substance    agiato
• substance abuse    abuso di stupefacenti
• substance of    sostanza di, il senso di
• the substance of    la sostanza di

Português (Portuguese)
n. - substância (f)

idioms:

• in substance    em resumo
• of substance    endinheirado
• substance abuse    abuso de drogas
• the substance of    o básico de

Русский (Russian)
вещество, сущность, суть, субстанция, твердость, имущество

idioms:

• in substance    в основном, на деле
• of substance    состоятельный
• substance abuse    наркомания
• the substance of    суть (чего-л.)

Español (Spanish)
n. - sustancia, importancia, peso, significación, esencia, fondo

idioms:

• in substance    en substancia, en esencia
• of substance    acaudalado, con fortuna
• substance abuse    drogas, narcóticos
• the substance of    la base de, la esencia de

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ämne, materia, stoff, substans, verklighet, verklighetsunderlag, innehåll, fasthet, förmögenhet

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
物质, 主旨, 实质

idioms:

• in substance    本质上, 基本上
• of substance    实质性, 有相当的资财
• substance abuse    滥用物质
• the substance of    ...的实质

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 物質, 主旨, 實質

idioms:

• in substance    本質上, 基本上
• of substance    實質性, 有相當的資財
• substance abuse    濫用物質
• the substance of    ...的實質

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 물질, 실체, 요지

idioms:

• in substance    실질적으로는, 대체로
• the substance of    대부분

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 物質, 資産, 実質, 内容, 大半, 要旨, 実体, 本質, 固体性

idioms:

• in substance    実質的には, 本質上
• of substance    資産家
• substance abuse    資産濫用
• the substance of    ～の要旨

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مادة , جوهر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חומר, ישות, ממשות, תוכן, תמצית, מוצקות, חוזק, רכוש, ממון‬

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