different between example vs matter

English

Etymology

From Middle English exaumple, example, from Old French essample (French exemple), from Latin exemplum (“a sample, pattern, specimen, copy for imitation, etc.”, literally “what is taken out (as a sample)”), from exim? (“take out”), from ex (“out”) + em? (“buy; acquire”); see exempt. Displaced native Middle English bisne, forbus, forbusen from Old English b?sen, and Middle English byspel from Old English b?spell. Doublet of exemplum and sample.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???z??mpl?/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /???z??mp?/
• (General Australian, US, weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /???zæmpl?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???zæmpl?/
• Rhymes: -??mp?l, -æmp?l
• Hyphenation: ex?am?ple

Noun

example (plural examples)

1. Something that is representative of all such things in a group.
2. Something that serves to illustrate or explain a rule.
3. Something that serves as a pattern of behaviour to be imitated (a good example) or not to be imitated (a bad example).
4. A person punished as a warning to others.
5. A parallel or closely similar case, especially when serving as a precedent or model.
6. An instance (as a problem to be solved) serving to illustrate the rule or precept or to act as an exercise in the application of the rule.

Synonyms

• e.g.
• See also Thesaurus:model
• See also Thesaurus:exemplar

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• exemplar
• model
• pattern
• quotation
• template

Verb

example (third-person singular simple present examples, present participle exampling, simple past and past participle exampled)

1. To be illustrated or exemplified (by).

Further reading

• example in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• example in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• exempla

English

Etymology

From Middle English matere, mater, from Anglo-Norman matere, materie, from Old French materie, matiere, from Latin materia (“matter, stuff, material”), derivative of Latin mater (“mother”). Doublet of Madeira.

Displaced native Middle English andweorc, andwork (“material, matter”) (from Old English andweorc (“matter, substance, material”)), Old English intinga (“matter, affair, business”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?mæt?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?mæt?/, [?mæ??]
  • Homophone: madder
• Rhymes: -æt?(?)
• Hyphenation: mat?ter

Noun

matter (countable and uncountable, plural matters)

1. Substance, material.
   1. (physics) The basic structural component of the universe. Matter usually has mass and volume.
   2. (physics) Matter made up of normal particles, not antiparticles.

      Antonym: antimatter

   3. A kind of substance.

   4. Printed material, especially in books or magazines.

   5. (philosophy) Aristotelian: undeveloped potentiality subject to change and development; formlessness. Matter receives form, and becomes substance.
2. A condition, subject or affair, especially one of concern.
   • 1597, Francis Bacon, Of the Colours of Good and Evil

     if the matter should be tried by duel

   • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift

     The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that’s already been settled.

3. An approximate amount or extent.
4. (obsolete) The essence; the pith; the embodiment.
   • 1611, Ben Jonson, Oberon, the Faery Prince

     He is the matter of virtue.

5. (obsolete) Inducing cause or reason, especially of anything disagreeable or distressing.
6. (dated) Pus.

Synonyms

• material
• stuff
• substance

Derived terms

Related terms

• dark matter

Translations

Verb

matter (third-person singular simple present matters, present participle mattering, simple past and past participle mattered)

1. (intransitive) To be important. [from 16th c.]
2. (transitive, in negative constructions, now England regional, Caribbean) To care about, to mind; to find important. [from 17th c.]
   • , Folio Society 1973, p.47:

     Besides, if it had been out of doors I had not mattered it so much; but with my own servant, in my own house, under my own roof […]

   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 56:

     He matter'd not that, he said; coy maids made the fondest wives […].

3. (intransitive, medicine, archaic) To form pus or matter, as an abscess; to maturate.

   • Each slight sore mattereth.

Derived terms

• it doesn't matter
• no matter (“in spite of”)

Synonyms

• (be important): signify

Translations

French

Verb

matter

1. Alternative spelling of mater

Conjugation

Anagrams

• mettra

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mat?/

Adjective

matter

1. comparative degree of matt
2. inflection of matt:
   1. strong/mixed nominative masculine singular
   2. strong genitive/dative feminine singular
   3. strong genitive plural

Middle French

Alternative forms

• mater

Verb

matter

1. to checkmate

Conjugation

• Middle French conjugation varies from one text to another. Hence, the following conjugation should be considered as typical, not as exhaustive.

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

matter m pl or f pl

1. indefinite plural of matte (Etymology 1)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

matter f pl

1. indefinite plural of matte (Etymology 1)