# matter

Pronunciation: US say "MAT-ur" /ˈmæt.ɚ/; UK say "MAT-uh" /ˈmæt.ə/

## Noun

1. An affair, situation, or subject being considered or dealt with, often one that causes concern, including a case a lawyer handles for a client.
   - Simple: A subject, situation, or problem that someone thinks about or deals with, such as a legal case.
   - _The board postponed the matter until further evidence arrived._
   - _Funding shortfalls are a pressing matter for every department this year._
3. The source of trouble or the thing that has gone wrong, used with the, as in the question What's the matter?
   - Simple: What is wrong or causing trouble, used after the, often when you ask someone what is wrong.
   - _Is anything the matter, or are you just tired from the trip?_
   - _The doctor couldn't find anything the matter with his knee._
4. Physical substance in general: anything that has mass and takes up space.
   - Simple: Any physical stuff that has mass and takes up space, such as air, water and rock.
   - _All matter is composed of atoms and molecules._
   - _Scientists study how matter behaves at extreme temperatures._
5. Physical material or substance of a particular kind.
   - Simple: Material or substance of a particular type.
   - _Organic matter enriches the soil as it breaks down._
   - _The filter traps fine particulate matter from the air._
6. An approximate amount, extent, or span of something.
   - Simple: An amount or length of something that is only rough or approximate.
   - _Recovery is now a matter of weeks rather than months._
   - _The finish line was a matter of inches away._
7. Printed material, especially the text and content found in books or magazines.
   - Simple: Words and pictures that are printed in books or magazines.
   - _The editor cut a third of the matter before sending it to press._
   - _Advertising matter filled the back pages of the journal._
8. The quality or state of being important; significance.
   - Simple: The importance or seriousness of something.
   - _The train was twenty minutes late, but it was no matter, since our meeting had been pushed back anyway._
   - _A few typos made it into the newsletter, though that was no great matter compared with getting it out on time._
11. In Aristotelian philosophy, undeveloped potential that is subject to change and takes on form to become substance.
   - Simple: In Aristotle's thinking, the stuff a thing is made from, which can take on a form, as bronze becomes a statue.
   - _For Aristotle, matter is the potential that form makes actual._
   - _In Aristotle's account, bronze is the matter of a statue and its shape is the form._

## Verb

2. To be important or significant.
   - Simple: To be important.
   - _These details matter when you're assembling the engine._
   - _What you do today will matter for years to come._
10. To care about or mind something; to find it important. *(dialectal, Caribbean, England)*
   - Simple: To care about something or to mind it.

## Noun

9. The essence, core, or true substance of something. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The most important part or true core of something.
12. Pus; the fluid produced by infected or inflamed tissue. *(dated)*
   - Simple: The thick yellowish liquid that forms in an infected wound.
13. The cause or reason for something, especially something unpleasant or distressing. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The cause or reason behind something bad or upsetting.

## Verb

14. Of a wound or abscess, to form pus; to suppurate. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To fill with pus, the way an infected sore does.

## Origin

This word came through Middle English and Anglo-Norman from Old French materie, from Latin materia ('wood'), which itself came from mater ('mother'). It is a doublet of words like matrix and mother, and it displaced the older Middle English andwork.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/matter (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).