substance
Syllables: sub·stance/ˈsʌbstəns/
substance noun: physical matter; material.
Noun
substance (countable and uncountable, plural substances)
- 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.1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations
- 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;...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 308
- A form of matter that has constant chemical composition and characteristic properties.
- The essential part of anything; the most vital part.
- Heroic virtue did his actions guide, / And he the substance, not the appearance, chose.1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number)
- This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth
- Substantiality; solidity; firmness.
- Some textile fabrics have little substance.
- Material possessions; estate; property; resources.
- a man of substance
- And there wasted his substance with riotous living.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 15:13
- Drugs (illegal narcotics)
- substance abuse
- Ousia, essence; underlying reality or hypostasis in the philosophical sense.
Verb
substance (third-person singular simple present substances, present participle substancing, simple past and past participle substanced)
- 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.1873, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, The Other Girls, page 335
- The calm ruminating / Reverie, substancing / Intellect into emotion, / Is shelter enough for love / Unhumiliated by faith.1982, Dhupaty V. K. Raghavacharyulu, The Song of the Red Rose and Other Poems, page 78
substance meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
substance in Hindi
- physical matter; material — see also matter
- पदार्थ padārth, वस्तु vastu
- a form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties
- पदार्थ padārth
- essential part
- विषय वस्तु viṣay vastu
- material possessions
- संपत्ति sampatti, सम्पत्ति sampatti, संपदा sampdā
substance in Tamil
- பொருள், பண்டம், சாரப்பொருள், சாரம்
substance in Marathi
- a substance, ingredient, or material offered in a homa; typically includes ghee, grains, herbs, wood, and other ritual offerings
- होमद्रव्य homadravya
- substance, money, wealth, property
- अर्थ artha
substance in Urdu
- physical matter; material — see also matter
- مادہ māda
More languagesFewer languages
- substance in Bengali
- পদার্থ podartho
- substance in Telugu
- పదార్థము padārthamu
- substance in Malayalam
- പൊരുൾ poruḷ, പദാർത്ഥം padāṟtthaṁ
- substance in Kannada
- ಸೊಗಡು, ಹೊಲಬು, ತಿರುಳು, ಮಯ್
- substance in Gujarati
- પદાર્થ padārth
- substance in Sanskrit
- सम्पत्ति sampatti
- substance in Assamese
- তত্ত্ব tottto, সাৰ xar
- substance in Nepali
- पदार्थ, सबस्ट्यान्सिङ
- substance in Pashto
- ماده mādá
- substance in Arabic
- مَادَّة mādda
- substance in Malay
- bahan, zat
- substance in Indonesian
- zat
- substance in Persian
- ماده mâdde
- substance in Thai
- สสาร sà-sǎan, ใจความ jai-kwaam, แก่นสาร
- substance in Vietnamese
- vật chất
- substance in Myanmar
- ဒြပ် drap
Examples of substance in a sentence
- Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily.2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only insulting, but alarming.1796, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace:
- Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, / Cannot amount unto a hundred marks.c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
Synonyms of substance
Antonyms
Forms of substance
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | substances |
| alternative form (archaic) | substaunce |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | substances |
| present participle | substancing |
| past participle | substanced |
| past | substanced |
Origin of substance
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.
Words formed from substance
- 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
- substance dualism
- substancehood
- substanceless
- substanceness
- substance-wise
- substantification
- substantify
Phrases with substance
Questions about substance
- What does substance mean?
- Substance means physical matter; material.
- What is substance in Hindi?
- Substance in Hindi is पदार्थ (padārth), वस्तु (vastu), विषय वस्तु (viṣay vastu). See Substance meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use substance in a sentence?
- Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily.
- What part of speech is substance?
- Substance can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce substance?
- Substance is pronounced /ˈsʌbstəns/ (US).
- What is the plural of substance?
- The plural of substance is substances.
Words near substance in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: substance (page history and authors); substance (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); अर्थ (Marathi) (page history and authors); പദാർത്ഥം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); substance (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); પદાર્થ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); তত্ত্ব (Assamese) (page history and authors); substance (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-substance.ogg.
Cite this entry: “substance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/substance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.