materia

Borrowed from Latin māteria (“matter, the material world”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /məˈti(ɚ).ɹi.ə/
• Rhymes: -ɪɹiə, -ɪəɹiə

materia (uncountable)

1. (uncommon, higher register) The physical substances which create the natural world: matter, materials, substance, etc.

   Synonym: matter

Borrowed from Latin māteria. Cf. madera.

materia f (plural materies)

1. subject (main topic)
2. material world
3. matter

Internationalism, ultimately from Latin māteria.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑteriɑ/, [ˈmɑ̝t̪e̞ˌriɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -iɑ
• Syllabification^(key): ma‧te‧ri‧a
• Hyphenation^(key): ma‧te‧ria

materia

1. matter

• aine

• materiaali
• materialismi
• materialisti

• “materia”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

• maireat

• matera (archaic, regional)

Latinization of older matera, from Latin māteria.

• IPA^(key): /maˈtɛ.rja/
• Rhymes: -ɛrja
• Hyphenation: ma‧tè‧ria

materia f (plural materie)

1. matter, substance, material, stuff
2. subject-matter, matter, subject, topic

• antimateria

• materiale
• materia prima
• materico

• amartie, ametria, armiate, ramiate, riamate

Borrowed from Latin māteria.

materia f (plural materies)

1. matter, material

• māteriēs

Traditionally derived from māter (“mother, at least in the sense of 'source'”) +‎ -ia, in which case cognate with Old Armenian մայր (mayr, “cedar”) and մայրի (mayri, “forest”).^[1] Sense 1 is a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē, “wood, matter”), introduced by Cicero.^[2]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [maːˈtɛ.ri.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [maˈtɛː.ri.a]

māteria f (genitive māteriae); first declension

2. matter; material; component stuff; substance
   • c. 125 CE – 180 CE, Apuleius, Metamorphoses 2.31:

     Et vellem, herculēs, māteriam repperīrem aliquam quam deus tantus affluenter indueret.

     And, by Hercules, I would like to find [clothing] material that such a great god could wear in flowing folds.

3. timber

   Synonym: lignum

4. (figurative) source, origin

First-declension noun.

• māterior

• “materia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “materia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "materia", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “materia”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • my subject grows as I write: materia mihi crescit
    
  • abundance of material: materia rerum et copia uberrima
    
  • abundance of material: infinita et immensa materia
    

Learned borrowing from Latin māteria.

• IPA^(key): /maˈtɛ.rja/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrja
• Syllabification: ma‧te‧ria

materia f

1. (physics) matter

• materia in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• materia in Polish dictionaries at PWN

materia f (plural materias)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of matéria

Borrowed from Latin māteria. Doublet of the inherited madera.

• IPA^(key): /maˈteɾja/ [maˈt̪e.ɾja]
• Rhymes: -eɾja
• Syllabification: ma‧te‧ria

materia f (plural materias)

1. (physics) matter (the basic structural component of the universe)
2. subject (topic; particular area of study)

   Synonym: sujeto

• “materia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Borrowed from Latin māteria.

• Audio (Gotland):

  (file)

materia c (uncountable)

1. matter

• antimateria
• material
• materiell

• materia in Svensk ordbok.