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matter

noun
/ˈmæt.ə/UK/ˈmæt.ɚ/US/ˈmæt.ə/

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”).

  1. derived from māteria — “wood”
  2. derived from materie
  3. derived from materie
  4. inherited from matere

Definitions

  1. Material

    Material; substance.

  2. An affair, condition, or subject, especially one of concern or (especially when preceded…

    An affair, condition, or subject, especially one of concern or (especially when preceded by the) one that is problematic.

    • Something is the matter with him.
    • The diplomats met to discuss state matters.

  3. An approximate amount or extent.

    • I stayed for a matter of months.
    • No small matter of British forces were commanded over sea the year before.
    • Away he goes, […] a matter of seven miles.
  4. ›+ 9 more definitions

    1. Legal services provided by a lawyer or firm to their client in relation to a particular…

      Legal services provided by a lawyer or firm to their client in relation to a particular issue.

      • Please find attached an invoice for three outstanding matters.

    2. Essence

      Essence; pith; embodiment.

      • He is the matter of virtue.

    3. (The) inducing cause or reason, especially of anything disagreeable or distressing.

      • And this is the matter why interpreters upon that passage in Hosea will not consent it to be a true story, that the prophet took a harlot to wife.

    4. Pus.

    5. Importance.

      • What matter if we unrewarded must strive, / If Wall Street and gamblers around it may thrive? / What matter if we doubly pay for our food / To support the monopolist kings of the road?

    6. To be important.

      • The only thing that matters to Jim is being rich.
      • Sorry for pouring ketchup on your clean white shirt! - Oh, don't worry, it does not matter.

    7. To care about, to mind

      To care about, to mind; to find important.

      • Besides, if it had been out of doors I had not mattered it so much; but with my own servant, in my own house, under my own roof […]
      • He matter'd not that, he said; coy maids made the fondest wives […].

    8. To form pus or matter, as an abscess

      To form pus or matter, as an abscess; to maturate.

      • Each slight sore mattereth.

    9. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

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 · +68 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at matter. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01matter02concern03problem04schoolwork05school06prior07chiefly08principally

A definitional loop anchored at matter. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at matter

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA