WordWeb Online

1. The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object
   "coal is a hard black material";
   - stuff
    
2. Information (data or ideas or observations) that can be used or reworked into a finished form
   "the archives provided rich material for a definitive biography"
    
3. Artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers
   "she measured off enough material for a dress";
   - fabric, cloth, textile
    
4. Things needed for doing or making something
   "writing materials"; "useful teaching materials"
    
5. A person judged suitable for admission or employment
   "he was university material"; "she was vice-presidential material"

1. Concerned with worldly rather than spiritual interests
   "material possessions"; "material wealth"; "material comforts"
    
2. Concerned with or affecting physical as distinct from intellectual or psychological well-being
   "material needs"; "the moral and material welfare of all good citizens"
    
3. Derived from or composed of matter
   "the material universe"
    
4. Directly relevant to a matter especially a law case
   "his support made a material difference"; "evidence material to the issue at hand"; "facts likely to influence the judgment are called material facts"; "a material witness"
    
5. Having material or physical form or substance
   "that which is created is of necessity material and visible and tangible";
   - corporeal
    
6. Having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary
   "the material world";
   - substantial, real

Derived forms: materials

See also: bodied, bodily, corp. [informal], corporal, corporality, corporate [archaic], corporeality, crucial, embodied, incarnate, materiality, physical, physicalness, reincarnate, secular, solidness, substantiality, substantialness, temporal, worldly

Type of: applicant, applier, artefact [Brit], artifact [N. Amer], equipment, gen [Brit, informal], info [informal], information, substance

Antonym: immaterial, nonmaterial

Encyclopedia: Material