substance

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

I

n. material (see substance); subject [matter], meaning, gist; wealth (see money).

II

Material existence

Nouns

1. substance, matter; corpus, frame, protoplasm, principle; person, thing, object, article; incarnation, embodiment, avatar; something, a being, an existence, entity; creature, body, stuff, clay. See humanity, texture.

2. (material nature) substantiality, materiality, materialness, essence, reality, corporeality; tangibility; flesh and blood.

3. (study of material existence) physics, physical science, quantum mechanics; somatology, somatics; materialism; materialist, physicist.

Verbs — embody, incorporate, incarnate, actualize, materialize, subsist, be; substantiate.

Adjectives — substantive, substantial; concrete, sound, solid; personal; bodily, tangible, corporeal, real, material; appreciable.

Adverbs — substantially, bodily, essentially, etc.; on solid ground; in the flesh.

Quotations — Anybody who is not shocked by this subject [quantum mechanics] has failed to understand it (Niels Bohr).

Antonyms, see insubstantiality.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Essence]

Syn. body, core, pith; see basis 1 , essence 1 , matter 1 .

2. [Object]

Syn. matter, material, being, object, item, person, animal, something, element; see also thing 1 .

• in substance,

Syn. in essence, substantially, actually; see essentially .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. matter material, element, stuff, constituent, ingredient, something.

2. reality solidity, substantiality, concreteness.

3. essence meaning, gist, spirit, core, heart, meat, nucleus, thrust, sense, point, *bottom line, *sum total.

4. wealth resources, possessions, affluence, assets, worth, riches, property.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. That which occupies space and can be perceived by the senses: materiality, matter. See BODY. 2. That from which things are or can be made: material, matter, stuff. Idiom: grist for one's mill. See MATTER. 3. A basic trait or set of traits that define and establish the character of something: being, essence, essentiality, nature, quintessence, texture. See SURFACE. 4. The most central and material part: core, essence, gist, heart, kernel, marrow, meat, nub, pith, quintessence, root1, soul, spirit, stuff. Law: gravamen. See BE. 5. The general sense or significance, as of an action or statement: amount, burden2, drift, import, purport, tenor. Idioms: sum and substance, sum total. See MEANING. 6. The thread or current of thought uniting or occurring in all the elements of a text or discourse: aim, burden2, drift, intent, meaning, purport, tendency, tenor, thrust. See MEANING.