Word.ws English Dictionary

hyle

hyle noun: synonym of matter, physical substance.

Noun

hyle (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Synonym of matter, physical substance.
    Synonyms:
    matter, physical substance
  2. Synonym of protomatter, the first matter of the cosmos from which the four elements arose according to Empedocles and Aristotle.
    Synonyms:
    protomatter

Synonyms of hyle

Forms of hyle

alternative formylem
alternative form (obsolete)hile
alternative form (obsolete)hyla

Origin of hyle

From Medieval Latin hyle, from Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē, “wood, matter”), particularly in Aristotle as πρώτη ὕλη (prṓtē húlē, “protomatter, fundamental undifferentiated matter”).

Words formed from hyle

Questions about hyle

What does hyle mean?
Hyle means synonym of matter, physical substance.
What part of speech is hyle?
Hyle is a noun.

Words near hyle in the dictionary

  1. Hyland
  2. Hylands
  3. hylarchic
  4. hylarchical
  5. hylas
  6. hyle
  7. hylea
  8. hyleg
  9. hylegiacal
  10. hylegical
  11. hylegs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hyle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “hyle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hyle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.