You searched for: “material
material, material, materiel, matériel
material (muh TIR ee uhl) (adjective)
Relating to something which has real significance or consequence: The material facts of the investigation were presented to the judge.
material (muh TIR ee uhl) (noun)
1. Something tangible or physically present: The fabric, or material of Dina's new dress is dark green.

The food bank provided the material that was needed to help support a hungry community.

2. That which can be refined into a more finished form: Shanna's research provided new material for the biography she was writing about the painter.
3. Information which is the object of study: The course outline for Tony's class indicated the material that would be covered each week.
materiel (muh tir" ee EL) (noun)
Equipment used by a group or organization: Nell and Luis will try out the camping gear or materiel on the weekend.
matériel (muh tir" ee EL) (noun)
French version for equipment or hardware: Matériel is an alternate spelling for "materiel".

The material for Billy's research project was to compare the response of the purchasing public to reading about a new material for camping equipment versus reading about a new matériel. He wanted to determine if the foreign sounding word affected the choice of the customers.

material, materials
1. Woven flat cloth or fabric.
2. A substance used to make things.
3. Information; such as, facts, notes, and research used in the making of a book, movie, or other creative work.
4. Someone regarded in terms of his or her suitability to perform a particular job or task.
5. The tools and other things needed to perform a particular task.
6. Relating to or consisting of solid physical matter; such as, the material universe.
7. Worldly, relating to physical well-being rather than emotional or spiritual well-being; emphasis on material comforts.
8. In law, crucial to the outcome of a court case or to the validity of a legal document: "She was a material witness."
9. Etymology: in the 12th century, directly from or via Anglo-Norman matere and French matiere, from Latin materia, "timber, stuff of which something is made"; later, "subject, topic", formed from Latin mater "mother" which was translated from a Greek word for "wood, forest, timber, stuff, matter".

The material substance of the universe that has mass, occupies space, and is convertible to energy.

This entry is located in the following unit: materi- (page 1)
More possibly related word entries
A unit related to: “material
(Greek: wood, forest, substance, matter; material, materialism)
(Latin: suffix; forming nouns and verbs; an action done; the product of or a result of some kind of material or a process of doing something)
(Greek: juice, liquid; the semifluid material resulting from the partial digestion of food)
(Greek: stone, rock; hard consolidated mineral matter; hard matter formed from mineral and earth material; hard substance that is solid)
(Greek: papyros > Latin > Old French; papyrus, an Egyptian rush [a reed plant] from which material was made for writing or drawing. Used in the sense of "fibrous material on which to write or to draw"; paper)
(Greek: pus; purulent, an infection or foreign material that causes a thick whitish-yellow fluid which results from the accumulation of white blood cells)
(Latin: shield; a broad piece of metal or another suitable material, held by straps or a handle attached on one side, used as a protection against blows or missiles.)
(Greek: ash-gray; volcanic material such as ash, dust, cinders, etc.)
Word Entries containing the term: “material
acoustical material (s) (noun), acoustical materials (pl)
Any fabric or composition of material that is designed to reduce sounds or to absorb unwanted noises: The architect ordered acoustical material for the ceiling of the room from a reputable dealer who specialized in sound systems.
electrooptic material, electro-optic material
1. A material in which the indexes of refraction (a ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum relative to that speed through a given medium) are changed by an applied electric field.
2. A material having refractive indexes which can be altered by an applied electric field.
This entry is located in the following unit: electro-, electr-, electri- (page 73)
electro-optical material, electro optical material
A material which is capable of transforming electrical information into optical information or performing some optical function in response to an electric signal.

One example is lead lanthanum zirconate titanate, a transparent ferroelectric ceramic whose optical properties can be changed by an electric field.

In lasers, such materials can be used for beam deflection, beam modulation, and Q switching (a switch that allows for the build-up of energy before it is switched open to allow light to move out).

This entry is located in the following unit: electro-, electr-, electri- (page 74)
electro-optical material, electrooptical material
A material which is capable of transforming electrical information into optical information or performing some optical function in response to an electric signal.

One example is lead lanthanum zirconte titanate, a transparent ferroelectric ceramic whose optical properties can be changed by an electric field.

In lasers, such materials can be used for beam deflection, beam modulation, and Q switching (Quality switch or an optical valve in a laser that prevents light from transmitting outside the resonating cavity).

The Q switch allows for the build-up of energy before it is switched open to allow light to move out.

This entry is located in the following unit: electro-, electr-, electri- (page 74)
material flow account, material flow analysis
A component of a nation's economic accounts that represents inputs of materials, their accumulation, and their outflow to the natural environment and other economies.
This entry is located in the following units: lyso-, lyo-, -lysin, -lys-, -lysis, -lytic, -lyt-, -lyz- (page 6) materi- (page 1)
material intensity
1. The relation between primary material demand and the gross domestic product of a country in a given year; such as, tons of copper used per monetary value of gross domestic product.
2. A similar relation between material demand and population.
This entry is located in the following unit: materi- (page 1)
material recycling
1. Any process of recovering or extracting valuable or useful materials from waste or scrap.
2. Specifically, the reuse of specific consumer or industrial items in order to conserve scarce materials; reduce pollution and littering, etc.
This entry is located in the following unit: materi- (page 1)
omniphobic material (s) (noun), omniphobic materials (pl)
A reference to materials that repel liquids consisting of water and oil: Omniphobic is a newly coined word meaning "it hates everything".

The substance forces away watery and oily liquids into tight droplets due to its surface texture, made up of 300-nanometer-tall "toadstools" with broad silicon dioxide caps and narrow silicon stems.

Water has very high surface tension, 72 milliNewtons per meter (mN/m) at room temperature, which means it easily forms near-spherical drops when placed on a surface.

Because of their near-spherical shape, the droplets meet the surface at a high angle above 150° if the water is sitting on a superhydrophobic surface.

—Compiled from "Dirt won't stick to omniphobic material"
by Colin Barras in the New Scientist; November 10, 2008.

phase-change material (PCM)
A substance that undergoes a change of status; such as, by melting, freezing, boiling, or condensing; while absorbing or rejecting thermal energy, normally at a constant temperature.
This entry is located in the following unit: phant-, phanta-, phas-; -phasic, -phant (page 4)
piezoelectric material
Any material that generates electrical charges when subjected to a mechanical force.
This entry is located in the following units: electro-, electr-, electri- (page 97) materi- (page 2) piezo-, piez- + (page 2)
total material requirement (TMR)
The total mass of the physical materials that are mobilized each year to support an economy.

This includes not only the direct use of resources for producing goods; such as, oil and timber harvest; but also "hidden flows" including mining overburden, processing waste, and soil erosion; as well as, the materials embodied in imports.

This entry is located in the following units: materi- (page 2) total-, tot- + (page 2)
Word Entries at Get Words containing the term: “material
material sciences
An interdisciplinary field involving the properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science, technology, and engineering.
This entry is located in the following unit: Alchemy, an ancient science (page 1)