# substance

Pronunciation: say "SUB-stuhns" /ˈsʌbstəns/

## Noun

1. Physical matter; the material that physical objects are made of.
   - Simple: The stuff that physical things are made of.
   - _The bottle contained an oily substance with a sharp smell._
   - _Geologists identified the dark substance as cooled volcanic rock._
2. The essential or most vital part of something; its core meaning or content.
   - Simple: The most important part of something: the main idea or point.
   - _Critics praised the film's style but found little substance beneath it._
   - _The substance of the agreement was a promise to share resources._
3. An illegal drug or narcotic, taken or possessed unlawfully.
   - Simple: A drug that is against the law to use or sell.
   - _The athlete tested positive for a banned substance before the race._
   - _Counselors at the center treat people recovering from substance abuse._
4. A form of matter with a constant chemical composition and characteristic properties.
   - Simple: A kind of matter that always has the same makeup and the same properties.
   - _Each substance has a unique melting point that helps chemists identify it._
   - _Gold is an element, a substance that cannot be broken into simpler parts._
5. A person's material possessions, property, and financial resources.
   - Simple: The money, property, and things that a person owns.
   - _A man of substance, he owned estates in three counties._
   - _The long war stripped the family of nearly all their substance._
6. The quality of being solid, firm, and real; genuine weight or body.
   - Simple: The quality of being solid, firm, or real.
   - _The heavy oak gave the table a sense of substance and permanence._
   - _The soup needed more substance, so she added beans and barley._
7. Essence or underlying reality; what a thing fundamentally is, beneath its outward and changing properties.
   - Simple: The real, deep nature of a thing: what it truly is underneath.
   - _For Aristotle, the substance of a thing is what it is in itself, not its passing qualities._
   - _Medieval thinkers debated whether the divine substance could be known by reason._

## Verb

8. To make something real, solid, or concrete; to give it actual form. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To make an idea or thing real and solid.
   - _The committee hoped to substance its proposals with detailed figures._
   - _Only firsthand testimony could substance the rumors swirling around the court._

## Origin

This word came through Middle English and Old French from Latin substantia ('substance, essence'), from substāns, the present participle of substō ('to exist', literally 'to stand under'), formed from sub plus stō ('stand'). It replaced the native Old English word andweorc.

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