matter
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A subject or situation; also to be important; also physical stuff.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
materSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmætɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Printed material, especially in books or magazines.
uncountable
Material; substance.
physics
Anything with mass and volume.
physics
Matter made up of normal particles, not antiparticles.
A kind of substance.
An affair, condition, or subject, especially one of concern or (especially when preceded by the) one that is problematic.
verb
(transitive, in negative constructions, now England regional, Caribbean) To care about, to mind; to find important.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Printed material, especially in books or magazines.
Used this way, matter is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use matter
- “Physicists study both the nature of matter and the forces which govern it.”noun
- “He always took some reading matter with him on the plane.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An inevitable ending.
A disputed factual contention that is generally left for a jury to decide.
A disputed legal contention that is generally left for a judge to decide.
Be of importance or consequence.
The most important point.
A hypothetical form of matter that is believed to make up 90 percent of the universe.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.