substances
- 1Plural of substance.
Chemists carefully labeled the unknown substances before analysis.
Certain hazardous substances must be stored away from open flames.
Note
A plural that mostly belongs to the countable, concrete meanings of substance: separate materials, or chemicals with a fixed composition and characteristic properties. It also covers the drug meaning, as in a ban on illegal substances. The abstract meanings (the essential part of something, solidity, wealth) usually resist the plural. An argument has substance, a person may be of substance, but neither has substances.
substances is a form of substance
substance, noun: Physical matter; the material that physical objects are made of. Full entry
- Forms
- substancesubstances plural
- Spelling
- substance → substances: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /ɪz/, an extra syllable.
Use it in a sentence
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