different between material vs thing

English

Etymology

From Middle English material, from Late Latin m?teri?lis, from Latin m?teria (“wood, material, substance”), from m?ter (“mother”). Displaced native Middle English andweorc, andwork (“material, matter”) (from Old English andweorc (“matter, substance, material”)).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /m??t??i.?l/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m??t?????l/
• Hyphenation: ma?te?ri?al

Adjective

material (comparative more material, superlative most material)

1. Having to do with matter; consisting of matter.
   • 1913, Alfred Bowyer Sharpe, Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Evil

     the material elements of the universe

2. Worldly, as opposed to spiritual.

   Antonym: spiritual

3. (law, accounting) Significant.

   • discourse, which was always material, not trifling

   • I shall, in the account of simple ideas, set down only such as are most material to our present purpose.

   Antonym: immaterial

Synonyms

• (related to matter): See also Thesaurus:substantial
• (worldly): mundane
• (significant): See also Thesaurus:pertinent

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

material (countable and uncountable, plural materials)

2. Matter which may be shaped or manipulated, particularly in making something.
4. Text written for a specific purpose.

6. A sample or specimens for study.
8. Cloth to be made into a garment. Fabric.

   • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. There was a great deal of them, lavish both in material and in workmanship.

10. The people collectively who are qualified for a certain position or activity.

12. Related data of various kinds, especially if collected as the basis for a document or book.
13. The substance that something is made or composed of.
14. (chess) All of a player's pieces and pawns on the chessboard.

Usage notes

• Sense 4 ("cloth" or "fabric") rather awkwardly uses material to refer to a holonym (or subgroup, or, in this case, a more specific iteration) of itself. "Fabric" or "cloth" are more specific (or put another way, less vague) choices of word than "material" when referring to a textile.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:material

Derived terms

Related terms

• matter

Translations

See also

• materiel

Verb

material (third-person singular simple present materials, present participle materialling, simple past and past participle materialled)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To form from matter; to materialize.
   • 1643, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici

     I believe that the whole frame of a beast doth perish, and is left in the same state after death as before it was materialled unto life.

Anagrams

• Armalite

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin materialis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /m?.t?.?i?al/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ma.te.?i?al/

Adjective

material (masculine and feminine plural materials)

1. material (clarification of this definition is needed)

Noun

material m (plural materials)

1. material (clarification of this definition is needed)

Related terms

• matèria

Further reading

• “material” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

From Latin materialis.

Noun

material

1. material

Declension

References

• Mirjejev, V. A.; Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajins?ko-kryms?kotatars?kyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]?^[2], Simferopol: Dolya, ?ISBN

Galician

Noun

material m (plural materiais)

1. material

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch materiaal, from Middle Dutch materiael, from Middle French material, from Old French material, from Latin m?teri?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ma.te?ri.al]
• Hyphenation: ma?té?ri?al

Noun

material (plural material-material, first-person possessive materialku, second-person possessive materialmu, third-person possessive materialnya)

1. material: matter which may be shaped or manipulated, particularly in making something.

Related terms

Further reading

• “material” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• materiel, materiall, materyal, materyall, matryal

Etymology

From Latin m?teri?lis; equivalent to matere +? -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mat?ri?a?l/, /ma?t?ri?a?l/, /ma?t??rial/, /mat?ri???l/, /ma?t??ri?l/

Adjective

material (plural and weak singular materiale)

1. Extant in matter or having physical form; material.
2. Not supernatural or spiritual; regular, conventional, worldly.
3. Being the physical attributes or properties of a thing.
4. Affecting or modifying physical matter or attributes.
5. (rare) Prominent, significant.

Descendants

• English: material

References

• “m??teri?l, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-12.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Late Latin materiale.

Noun

material n (definite singular materialet, indefinite plural material or materialer, definite plural materiala or materialene)

1. alternative form of materiale

Derived terms

• råmaterial

References

• “material” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin m?teri?lis, from Latin m?teria (“wood, material, substance”), from m?ter (“mother”).

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ma.te.?i.?aw/, /ma.te.??jaw/
• Hyphenation: ma?te?ri?al

Noun

material m (plural materiais)

1. material; stuff (the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object)
2. material (sample or specimens for study)
   1. footage (amount of film produced)
   2. (education) resources used in class
3. tackle; supplies; gear; rig (objects collected for use in a particular activity)

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:material.

Adjective

material m or f (plural materiais, comparable)

1. (chemistry) material (relating to or composed of matter)
2. (religion) material; worldly (relating to physical rather than spiritual matters)

   Synonym: terreno

3. (of a person, derogatory) materialistic; consumeristic (obsessed with consumer goods)

   Synonyms: materialista, consumista

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:material.

Derived terms

• materialismo
• materialista
• materialmente

Related terms

• matéria

Further reading

• “material” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Romanian

Etymology

From French matériel, from Latin materialis.

Noun

material n (plural materiali)

1. material

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

From Late Latin m?teri?lis.

Adjective

material (plural materiales)

1. material

Noun

material m (plural materiales)

1. material

Derived terms

• materialmente
• material particulado

Related terms

• materialismo
• materialista
• materia

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

material n

1. a material
2. a matter, a subject (of study)

Declension

Related terms

• bildmaterial
• forskningsmaterial
• informationsmaterial
• materialförvaltare
• materialism
• materialist
• materialkategori
• materialprovning
• materialtyp
• materiel
• materiell
• textmaterial
• tidningsmaterial

Further reading

• material in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

English

Alternative forms

• thang (slang, pronunciation spelling, usually used to denote a known fad or popular activity)
• thin' (informal, pronunciation spelling)
• thinge (archaic)
• thynge (obsolete)
• ting (Caribbean creoles, MLE)

Etymology

From Middle English thing, from Old English þing, from Proto-Germanic *þing?; compare West Frisian ding, Low German Ding, Dutch ding, German Ding, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian ting. The word originally meant "assembly", then came to mean a specific issue discussed at such an assembly, and ultimately came to mean most broadly "an object". Compare Latin r?s, also meaning "legal matter", and same transition from Latin causa (“legal matter”) to "thing" in Romance languages. Modern use to refer to a Germanic assembly is likely influenced by cognates (from the same Proto-Germanic root) like Old Norse þing (“thing”), Swedish ting, and Old High German ding with this meaning.

Pronunciation

• enPR: th?ng, IPA^(key): /???/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

thing (plural things)

1. That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.
   • 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, Luke 1:1

     Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us...
2. A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.
3. An individual object or distinct entity.
4. (informal) A genuine concept, entity or phenomenon; something that actually exists (often contrary to expectation or belief). [from 20th c.]
   • 2014, Marianna Papastephanou, Torill Strand, Anne Pirrie, Philosophy as a Lived Experience

     Frequent statements of the kind “'Race' is not a thing”, “'races,' put simply, do not exist”, “'race' (as each essay subtly shows) simply does not exist” aim to discredit Todorov's claim that a relapse to an ontology of race is at place […]

   • 2019, Adam Gopnik, A Thousand Small Sanities, Riverrun 2019, p. 88:

     Conservative philosophy, in other words, is, as we say now, a thing and deserves a serious listen.

5. (law)
   1. Whatever can be owned.
   2. Corporeal object.
6. (somewhat dated, with the) The latest fad or fashion.
   • 1802, Anne Ormsby, "Memoirs of a Family in Swisserland", quoted in The Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal page 45:

     To go to bed late, to rise late, to breakfast late, to dine late, and to visit late, is to be “quite the thing,” or in good English, which you may understand better than the first phrase, to be in the fashion.

   • 2002, Roger Nichols, The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917-1929, Univ of California Press (?ISBN)

     After a slow start it became the thing to do; 'everyone went to see Pbi-Pbi, no one talked of anything but Pbi-Pbi […] '

7. (in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment.

8. (informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods.
   • 2011, Juliette Fay, Deep Down True: A Novel, Penguin (?ISBN)

     I came home and ate a whole thing of ice cream.

9. (informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.

10. (slang) A penis.
    • 1959, William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:

      “Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing.”

11. A living being or creature.

12. That which matters; the crux.

13. Used after a noun to refer dismissively to the situation surrounding the noun's referent.
    • 1914, Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, The Movie Man [playscript]:

      Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing. (in reference to the execution of Fernandez)

14. (informal) That which is favoured; personal preference. (Used in possessive constructions.)
15. (chiefly historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.
    • 1974, Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga, translated by Haraldur Bessason, page 46:

      In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, [...]

    • 1974, Jakob Benediktsson, Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis, in Saga Íslands, quoted in 1988 by Jesse L. Byock in Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power, page 85:

      The goðar seem both to have received payment of thing-fararkaup from those who stayed home and at the same time compensated those who went to the thing, and it cannot be seen whether they had any profit from these transactions.

    • 1988, Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power, page 59:

      All Icelandic things were skap-thing, meaning that they were governed by established procedure and met at regular legally designated intevals at predetermined meeting places.

16. (informal) A romantic relationship.

Synonyms

• (referent that can be used to refer to any entity): item, stuff (uncountable equivalent), yoke (Ireland)
• (penis): see Thesaurus:penis
• (personal preference): see Thesaurus:predilection

Derived terms

Related terms

• diminutives: thingy / thingie, thingo [Aus]

Translations

Further reading

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

Verb

thing (third-person singular simple present things, present participle thinging, simple past and past participle thinged)

1. (rare) To express as a thing; to reify.

Anagrams

• Night, night

Khumi Chin

Etymology

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *thi?, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *si?. Cognates include Mizo thing and Zou sing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t???/

Noun

thing

1. firewood

References

• K. E. Herr (2011) The phonological interpretation of minor syllables, applied to Lemi Chin?^[1], Payap University, page 44

Middle English

Alternative forms

• thinge, ðhing

Etymology

From Old English þing, from Proto-West Germanic *þing.

Noun

thing (plural thinges)

1. thing

Descendants

• English: thing
• Scots: thing, ting, hing
• Yola: dhing

References

• “thing, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Mizo

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *si?. Akin to Khumi Chin thing.

Noun

thing

1. tree
2. wood
3. firewood

References

• Matisoff, James A., Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman, University of California Press.

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *þing?.

Noun

thing n

1. thing, object
2. case, matter, issue

Inflection

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: dinc
  • Dutch: ding
    • Afrikaans: ding
  • Limburgish: dink, ding

Further reading

• “think”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

Old High German

Alternative forms

• ding, dink

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *þing?

Noun

thing n

1. thing, object
2. matter, case

Declension

Descendants

• Middle High German: ding
  • Cimbrian: ding
  • German: Ding
  • Luxembourgish: Déngen
  • Pennsylvania German: Ding

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *þing. Compare Old Dutch thing, Old Frisian thing, Old English þing, Old High German ding, Old Norse þing.

Noun

thing n

1. thing, object
2. matter, case

Declension

Descendants

• Middle Low German: dink
  • German Low German: Ding
  • Plautdietsch: Dinkj