English

Etymology

From Latin materia (matter, stuff, material), derivative of Latin mater (mother).

Noun

matter (uncountable and countable; plural: matters)

1. The basic structural component of the universe. Matter always consists of a mass and a volume, and contains its mass times the speed of light squared in total energy stored.
2. A kind of substance.

   vegetable matter

3. A reason for concern; being amiss

   What's the matter?

4. A situation.

   a trivial matter

5. A cause.

   a matter for concern

6. (Neurology) Gray and white matter are the two nerve tissue types that comprise the brain and spinal cord .

Synonyms

• material
• stuff
• substance

Translations

• Dutch: materie f
• Finnish: aine (common), materia (scientific)
• French: matière f
• Frisian: matearje
• German: Materie f (1), Masse f (2), Angelegenheit f (3), Anlass m (4)
• Interlingua: materia
• Portuguese: matéria f
• Romanian: materie f
• Spanish: materia f

Intransitive verb

to matter (matters, mattered , mattering )

1. Be important.

   The only thing that matters to Jim is being rich.

Translations

• Chinese: 事關 , 事关
• Finnish: merkitä , olla merkitystä
• French: importer
• German: wichtig sein, auszumachen
• Italian: importare
• Japanese: 重要 である
• Portuguese: importar
• Spanish: importar

Idioms

As a matter of fact —

Actually

For that matter —

In regards to

No matter —

In spite of

Derived terms

• matter-of-fact