Contextualizebeta

substance

noun
/ˈsʌbstəns/US

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English substance, from Old French substance, from Latin substantia (“substance, essence”), from substāns, present active participle of substō (“exist”, literally “stand under”), from sub + stō (“stand”). Displaced native Old English andweorc.

  1. derived from substantia — “substance, essence”
  2. derived from substance
  3. inherited from substance

Definitions

  1. Physical matter

    Physical matter; material.

    • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
    • His wasted hands were stretched out, and worked with a quick and convulsive motion, as if catching some small substances which kept eluding their grasp;...

  2. The essential part of anything

    The essential part of anything; the most vital part.

    • Heroic virtue did his actions guide, / And he the substance, not the appearance, chose.
    • 1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.
    • It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only insulting, but alarming.

  3. Substantiality

    Substantiality; solidity; firmness.

    • Some textile fabrics have little substance.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Material possessions

      Material possessions; estate; property; resources.

      • a man of substance
      • And there wasted his substance with riotous living.
      • Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, / Cannot amount unto a hundred marks.

    2. Drugs (illegal narcotics)

      • substance abuse

    3. Ousia, essence

      Ousia, essence; underlying reality or hypostasis in the philosophical sense.

    4. To give substance to

      To give substance to; to make real or substantial.

      • If life were nothing but what gets phrased and substanced, the world might as well be rolled up and laid away again in darkness.
      • The calm ruminating / Reverie, substancing / Intellect into emotion, / Is shelter enough for love / Unhumiliated by faith.

The neighborhood

Derived

all style and no substance, economic substance, exosubstance, ground substance, innominate substance, mucosubstance, multisubstance, nanosubstance, Nissl substance, nonsubstance, perfluoroalkyl substance, polyfluoroalkyl substance, polysubstance, queen substance, substance dependence, substancehood, substanceless, substanceness, substance-wise, substantification, substantify

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at substance. 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.

01substance02substantiality03substantialness04substantial05real06nominal07existing08exist09existence

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

9 hops · closes at substance

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