material
Syllables: ma·te·ri·alUK/məˈtɪə.ɹi.əl//məˈtɪɹ.i.əl/
material adjective: of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical.
Adjective
material (comparative more material, superlative most material)
- Of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical.
- This compound has a number of interesting material properties.
- the material elements of the universe1913, Alfred Bowyer Sharpe, Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Evil
- Of, relating to, or affecting physical well-being; corporeal; bodily.
- material needs
- Antonyms:
- spiritual
- Of or relating to the matter of reasoning, as distinguished from the form of it, especially empirical.
- material cause
- the material aspect of being
- Having real importance or great consequences; significant; substantial.
- found a material difference between two things
- You've made several material contributions to this project.
- Antonyms:
- immaterial
- Relating to or concerned with what is purely physical rather than intellectual or spiritual, especially excessively so; materialistic.
- the material world
- interested only in material progress
- Full of substance or otherwise meaning.
- In an important degree.
Noun
material (countable and uncountable, plural materials)
- A basic matter (as metal, wood, plastic, fiber, etc.) from which the whole or the greater part of something physical (as a machine, tool, building, fabric, etc.) is made.
- Asphalt, composed of oil and sand, is a widely used material for roads.
- In trumpets for assisting the hearing, all reverbation of the trumpet must be avoided. It must be made thick, of the least elastic materials, and covered with cloth externally. For all reverbation lasts for a short time, and produces new sounds which mix with those which are coming in.1820, Encyclopaedia Britannica; Or A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, 6th edition, volume 20, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company, page 501
- Synonyms:
- raw material
- A person, or people collectively, who are qualified or suited for a certain position or activity.
- boy/girlfriend material
- marriage material
- Synonyms:
- appoint
- Apparatus for doing or making something.
- Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted]”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18
- Something (as data, observations, perceptions or ideas) that may be incorporated, elaborated or otherwise reworked into a finished form or new form, or may serve as the basis for arriving at interpretations, judgments or conclusions.
- teaching materials
- We were a warm-up act at the time; we didn't have enough original material to headline.
- Fabric, which can be made into a garments, curtains, etc; especially, woven fabric (cloth).
- a piece of material
- You'll need about a yard of material to make this.
- The elements, constituents or substance of which something physical or non-physical composed of or can be made of.
- The solid materials of the mixture will settle to the bottom of the container.
- The material of his character was basically good.
- An element of a design language associated with a certain style of rendering on the display.
- All of a player's pieces and pawns on the chessboard, excluding the king.
- The ingredients for making whisky punch.
- Synonyms:
- matts
- The materiel of an army.
- Things that are material.
Verb
material (third-person singular simple present materials, present participle (US) materialing or (UK) materialling, simple past and past participle (US) materialed or (UK) materialled)
- To form from matter; to materialize.
- I believe that the whole frame of a beast doth perish, and is left in the same state after death as before it was materialled unto life.1642, [Thomas Browne], “(please specify the page)”, in Religio Medici, London: […] Andrew Crooke, →OCLC
material meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
material in Hindi
- matter
- सामग्री sāmagrī
material in Tamil
- பொருள், மூலப்பொருள், சரக்கு, பருப்பொருள், கருவி, பொருண்மம்
material in Urdu
- matter
- مادَّہ mādda
material in Bengali
- matter
- উপাদান upadan
More languagesFewer languages
- material in Telugu
- పదార్థం, మెటీరియల్
- material in Malayalam
- പദാർത്ഥം, വസ്തു
- material in Kannada
- ಮೂಲದ್ರವ್ಯ, ಮೂಲವಸ್ತು, ಮಾಹಿತಿ, ಸಂಗತಿಗಳು
- material in Punjabi
- ਸਮੱਗਰੀ samaggarī, ਖ਼ਾਕੀ xākī
- material in Gujarati
- સામગ્રી, મટીરીયલ, મટિરિયલ
- material in Odia
- ଅଧିକରଣ adhikaraṇa, କାରଣ kāraṇa
- material in Sanskrit
- प्राकृत prākṛta, सामग्री sāmagrī
- material in Tagalog
- materyal
- material in Arabic
- مَادِّيّ māddiyy, مَادَّة mādda
- material in Malay
- bahan
- material in Indonesian
- bahan
- material in Persian
- مادی mâddi
- material in Thai
- วัสดุ wát-sà-dù
- material in Vietnamese
- vật chất
- material in Myanmar
- ပစ္စည်း paccany:
Examples of material in a sentence
- This is the most material fact in this lawsuit.
- Don't let material concerns get in the way of living a happy life.
- We have lots of presidential material in various public offices.
- discourse, which was always material, not trifling1685 March 19 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 10 March 1685]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the...
- I shall, in the account of simple ideas, set down only such as are most material to our present purpose.1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for...
- 'Cause we are living in a material world / And I am a material girl / You know that we are living in a material world / And I am a material girl1984, Peter Brown and Robert Rans, “Material Girl”, in Like a Virgin, performed by Madonna:
Synonyms of material
Antonyms
Forms of material
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more material |
| superlative | most material |
| Noun | |
| plural | materials |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | materials |
| present participle US | materialing |
| present participle UK | materialling |
| past participle US | materialed |
| past US | materialed |
| past participle UK | materialled |
| past UK | materialled |
Origin of material
From Middle English material, from Late Latin māteriālis, from Latin māteria (“wood, material, substance”), from māter (“mother”). Displaced native Middle English andweorc, andwork (“material, matter”) (from Old English andweorc (“matter, substance, material”)). Doublet of materiel.
Words formed from material
- material breach
- material cause
- material nonimplication
- unmaterial
- active material
- antimaterial
- archaeomaterial
- archeomaterial
- astromaterial
- bill of material
- bimaterial
- biomaterial
- bomb material
- building material
- child sexual abuse material
- collateral material
- composite material
- cryptomaterial
- ecomaterial
- genetic material
- genuine issue of material fact
- geomaterial
- hazardous material
- hazmat
- Kelvin-Voigt material
- material action
- material conditional
- material culture
- material fact
- material handling
- material heresy
- material implication
- materialisation
- materialise
- materialism
- materialist
- materialization
- materialize
- material logic
- materially
- materialness
- material noun
- material science
- materials science
- material support
- material witness
- metamaterial
- micromaterial
- multimaterial
- nanomaterial
- non-material
- nonmaterial
- positive material identification
- postmaterial
- postmaterialism
- postmaterialist
- raw material
- reading material
- shawl material
- sociomaterial
Phrases with material
- material facts
- material nouns
- Voigt material
- material causes
- source material
- bills of material
- material breaches
- material heresies
- material sciences
- time and material
- material witnesses
- strategic material
5 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about material
- What does material mean?
- Material means of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical.
- What is material in Hindi?
- Material in Hindi is सामग्री (sāmagrī). See Material meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use material in a sentence?
- This is the most material fact in this lawsuit.
- What part of speech is material?
- Material can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce material?
- Material is pronounced /məˈtɪə.ɹi.əl/ (UK).
Words near material in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: material (page history and authors); material (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); material (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); material (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); material (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਖ਼ਾਕੀ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); material (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଅଧିକରଣ (Odia) (page history and authors); प्राकृत (Sanskrit) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-material.ogg.
Cite this entry: “material.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/material. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.