MATERIAL | Meaning, Definition In Cambridge English Dictionary

Meaning of material in English materialnoun uk /məˈtɪə.ri.əl/ us /məˈtɪr.i.əl/

material noun (PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE)

Add to word list Add to word list B2 [ C ] a physical substance that things can be made from: building material They are using low-impact building materials, such as reclaimed brick and stone.construction material The company has been plagued by a high turnover of project managers, poor oversight of subcontractors, and the use of second-grade construction materials. raw material Crude oil is used as the raw (= basic) material for making plastics.

• The meteorites contained only inorganic material.
• Clay is a very plastic material.
• Uranium is a radioactive material.
• The regular incorporation of organic material into garden soil improves its quality enormously.
• Prices of goods are governed by the cost of the raw materials, as well as by the cost of production and distribution.

Physics: the state of matter

• absorbency
• acidic
• allotropic
• compressible
• crystalline
• e-liquid
• gasses
• impervious
• melted
• photosensitive
• photosensitization
• photosensitizing
• polyunsaturated
• powdery
• rarefy
• reflective
• rustily
• rusty
• scaly
• sloppy

See more results »

material noun (INFORMATION)

B1 [ C or U ] information used when writing something such as a book, or information produced in various forms to help people or to advertise products: collect material I'm in the process of collecting material for an article that I'm writing.

• These documents contain classified material.
• The latest promotional material is all part of a recruitment drive.
• All our advertising material is designed in-house.
• I've listed some useful reading material on the handout.
• His latest book is a reworking of material from his previous short stories.

Information and messages

• advance notice
• advance warning
• advertisement
• aide-mémoire
• ammunition
• geotag
• glad tidings
• go up phrasal verb
• gory
• placard
• playbill
• primer
• propaganda
• prospectus
• sidelight
• subtlety
• the gory details idiom
• Wordle
• X, x
• Xs and Os idiom

See more results »

material noun (CLOTH)

B1 [ C or U ] cloth that can be used to make things such as clothes: How much material will you need to make the skirt?

• A lot of sportswear is made of very elastic material.
• She dipped the material into the dye.
• It's a dark grey material but it's flecked with white.
• We could use the rest of the material to make up some curtains.
• I'm trying to match up this wallpaper with some suitable curtain material.

Textiles: general words

• baize
• Bargello
• bias
• brocade
• cloth
• cutpiece
• fibre
• mesh
• multi-stranded
• multifilament
• nap
• padding
• pile
• pill
• reweave
• suiting
• the weft
• webbed
• webbing
• yarn

See more results »

material noun (EQUIPMENT)

 materials B1 [ plural ] equipment that you need for a particular activity: "Do we need any writing materials?" "Only a pen and a pencil." See more materialadjective uk /məˈtɪə.ri.əl/ us /məˈtɪr.i.əl/

material adjective (PHYSICAL)

relating to physical objects or money rather than emotions or the spiritual world: the material world Many religions and spiritual traditions encourage us to free ourselves from the material world.material wealth Material wealth never interested her. Physics: the state of matter

• absorbency
• acidic
• allotropic
• compressible
• crystalline
• e-liquid
• gasses
• impervious
• melted
• photosensitive
• photosensitization
• photosensitizing
• polyunsaturated
• powdery
• rarefy
• reflective
• rustily
• rusty
• scaly
• sloppy

See more results »

material adjective (IMPORTANT)

formal important or having an important effect: material to If you have any information that is material to the investigation, you should state it now. Very important or urgent

• all-important
• at all costs idiom
• be a matter of life and/or death idiom
• cardinally
• chief
• last
• last but not least idiom
• leading
• life-altering
• life-and-death
• prestigious
• prestigiously
• primacy
• primary
• prime
• tectonic
• vital
• vitally
• weightily
• weighty

See more results » (Definition of material from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

material | American Dictionary

materialnoun us /məˈtɪr·i·əl/

material noun (PHYSICAL THING)

Add to word list Add to word list [ C ] a type of physical thing, such as wood, stone, or plastic, having qualities that allow it to be used to make other things: a hard/soft material The sculpture was made of various materials, including steel, copper wire, and rubber.

material noun (CLOTH)

[ C/U ] cloth that can be used to make clothes, curtains, etc.: [ U ] What kind of material are you going to use for the curtains?

material noun (SUPPLIES)

[ C/U ] equipment or supplies needed for a particular activity: [ C usually pl ] The money will be spent on educational materials.

material noun (INFORMATION)

[ C/U ] information used when writing something such as a book, or information produced to help people or to advertise products: [ U ] He is working in the library gathering material for the article he is writing. (Definition of material from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

material | Business English

materialnoun uk /məˈtɪəriəl/ us Add to word list Add to word list [ C or U ] a physical substance that things can be made from: The cost of labour and materials has risen up to 40% in a short period.building/construction materials The buildings also use recycled building materials and consume less water.traditional/natural/recycled materials There is increasing demand for products made from recycled materials. hazardous/toxic/radioactive material [ U or plural ] printed documents, books, computer programs, etc. that give information, especially ones intended for a particular purpose: publicity/marketing/promotional material According to their publicity material, the new rates are the lowest in the UK.teaching/training materials The video and other training materials were created in-house.printed/published material Some people prefer to receive information face-to-face, rather than through published material. [ U ] information used when writing something: She gave me a lot of useful material for my presentation. The journalist had been collecting material for an article on the President.

See also

bill of materials collateral material direct materials raw material materialadjective [ before noun ] uk /məˈtɪəriəl/ us relating to physical objects or money: Increased material wealth is delivered by today's economic system. He cares more about job satisfaction than material things. (Definition of material from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of material

material They exercise political and military power over peripheries and enjoy a net surplus in the flow of materials or labor vital to core interests. From the Cambridge English Corpus Local craftsmen still know the ritual, economic, political and environmental restrictions that were traditionally applied to certain of these valuable raw materials. From the Cambridge English Corpus Managing and analyzing qualitative data : a description of tasks, techniques and materials. From the Cambridge English Corpus However, this does not necessarily imply large-scale disturbance of cultural materials. From the Cambridge English Corpus Second, did all of the materials that contained sak lu'um contain palygorskite? From the Cambridge English Corpus More materials are finally added to table 1 making it more useful for people working with second-order nonlinear effects. From the Cambridge English Corpus The materials presented here were collected using the methods of the ethnography of communication. From the Cambridge English Corpus The following is necessarily a tentative interpretation of the materials. From the Cambridge English Corpus Though the book does not address aesthetic issues directly, the materials certainly hold aesthetic implications. From the Cambridge English Corpus They were never observed feeding on the host egg, on the leaf, or on other materials on the leaf. From the Cambridge English Corpus The former is designed to be used with electronically presented materials while the latter with real objects. From the Cambridge English Corpus Their short-term retention of verbal materials seems to be comparable to that of average readers. From the Cambridge English Corpus The scarcity of materials on women living in frontier regions makes it harder to retrieve either personal or communal memories. From the Cambridge English Corpus To examine if the nonnative speakers' results can be attributed to frequency and word-length differences in the materials, a reanalysis of the data was done. From the Cambridge English Corpus After fire, the transects were remeasured to quantify residual plant materials that were not consumed. From the Cambridge English Corpus See all examples of material These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with material

material

These are words often used in combination with material.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

access materialThis would enable interested students to access material more easily without overwhelming the narrative. From the Cambridge English Corpus   additional materialIn a few places the arguments would have been strengthened by use of additional material. From the Cambridge English Corpus   advanced materialThe author has presented experimental results in some of the more advanced material which is useful to understand practical performance and trade-offs of the various algorithms. From the Cambridge English Corpus   These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors. See all collocations with material What is the pronunciation of material?

Translations of material

in Chinese (Traditional) 物質／材料, 材料，原料, 資訊… See more in Chinese (Simplified) 物质／材料, 材料，原料, 信息… See more in Spanish material, tela, material [masculine… See more in Portuguese material, matéria, tecido… See more in Marathi in Japanese in Turkish in French in Catalan in Dutch in Tamil in Hindi in Gujarati in Danish in Swedish in Malay in German in Norwegian in Urdu in Ukrainian in Telugu in Bengali in Czech in Indonesian in Thai in Vietnamese in Polish in Korean in Italian पदार्थ, माल, साहित्य… See more （服などの）生地, 資料, 材料… See more madde, malzeme, kumaş… See more tissu [masculine], étoffe [feminine], matériau [masculine]… See more teixit, material… See more materiaal, stof, materieel… See more பொருட்களை உருவாக்கக்கூடிய ஒரு உடல் பொருள், ஒரு புத்தகம் போன்ற ஏதாவது எழுதும் போது பயன்படுத்தப்படும் தகவல்கள், அல்லது மக்களுக்கு உதவ அல்லது தயாரிப்புகளை விளம்பரப்படுத்த பல்வேறு வடிவங்களில் தயாரிக்கப்பட்ட தகவல்கள்… See more (कुछ चीज़ों को बनाने के लिए) सामग्री, (पुस्तक लिखने या विज्ञापन के लिए संचित सामग्री) जानकारी, (पोशाक बनानी के लिए) कपड़ा… See more સામગ્રી (કંઈક બનાવવા માટે), સામગ્રી, કાપડ… See more materiale, stof, stoflig… See more material, tyg, materiell… See more bahan, kain, zat… See more das Material, der Stoff, materiell… See more stoff [neuter], materiale [neuter], informasjon [masculine]… See more سامان, مال مسالہ, مال… See more матеріал, матерія, тканина… See more పదార్ధం, వస్తువులను తయారు చేయగల భౌతిక పదార్థం, విషయం… See more উপাদান, তথ্য এবং উপাদান, কাপড়… See more materiál, látka, hmotný… See more bahan, kain, zat… See more วัตถุ, ผ้า, ที่เกี่ยวข้องกับวัตถุ… See more nguyên vật liệu, vải, vật chất… See more materiał, materialny, istotny… See more 천, 자료, 자재… See more stoffa, materiale, tessuto… See more Need a translator?

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mate for life idiom mated matelote mater material material culture material damage BETA material fact material properties BETA {{#randomImageQuizHook.filename}} {{#randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes Try a quiz now {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{^randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.filename}}

More meanings of material

• raw material
• fill material
• material fact
• non-material
• material culture
• material damage
• salvage material

See all meanings

Word of the Day

throw yourself into something

UK /θrəʊ/ US /θroʊ/

to do something actively and enthusiastically

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• English   
  • Noun 
    • material (PHYSICAL SUBSTANCE)
    • material (INFORMATION)
    • material (CLOTH)
    • material (EQUIPMENT)
    • materials
  • Adjective 
    • material (PHYSICAL)
    • material (IMPORTANT)
• American   
  • Noun 
    • material (PHYSICAL THING)
    • material (CLOTH)
    • material (SUPPLIES)
    • material (INFORMATION)
• Business   NounAdjective
• Examples
• Collocations

• Translations
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