matter

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. substance, material; subject, topic, business; affair; cause, ground; predicament, difficulty. —v. i. signify, import; count. See importance, thought.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Substance]

Syn. body, material, substantiality, corporeality, corporeity, protoplasm, constituents, stuff, materialness, object, thing, physical world; see also element 2 .

Ant. nothing*, nihility, immateriality.

2. [Difficulty]

Syn. trouble, distress, perplexity; see difficulty 2 .

3. [Subject]

Syn. interest, focus, resolution; see subject 1 , theme 1 , topic .

4. [An affair]

Syn. undertaking, circumstance, concern; see affair 1 .

5. [Pus]

Syn. suppuration, maturation, discharge, purulence, ulceration, infection; see also sore .

• as a matter of fact,

Syn. in fact, in actuality, truly; see really 1 .

• for that matter,

Syn. in regard to that, as far as that is concerned, concerning that; see and .

• no matter,

Syn. it doesn't matter, it is of no concern, regardless of; see regardless 2 .

v.

1. [To be of importance]

Syn. value, carry weight, weigh, signify, be substantive, be important, have influence, import, imply, denote, express, be of consequence, involve, be worthy of notice; see also mean 1 .

2. [To form or discharge pus]

Syn. suppurate, come to a head, fester; see decay .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. substance material, stuff, body, medium, element, object.

2. affair issue, concern, situation, question, subject, doing, business, topic, happening, episode.

3. consequence importance, weight, significance, import, gravity, magnitude.

4. trouble difficulty, problem, dilemma, upset, distress.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun 1. That which occupies space and can be perceived by the senses: materiality, substance. See BODY. 2. That from which things are or can be made: material, stuff, substance. Idiom: grist for one's mill. See MATTER. 3. What a speech, piece of writing, or artistic work is about: argument, point, subject, subject matter, text, theme, topic. See MEANING. 4. Something to be done, considered, or dealt with: affair, business, thing. See THING. II verb To be of significance or importance: count, import, signify, weigh. See IMPORTANT.