matter
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmæt.ə/
ipa: /ˈmæt.ɚ/
ipa: [-ɾ.ɚ]
homophone: madder (some US pronunciations)
rhymes: -ætə(ɹ)
Forms: form: matters
form: mattering
form: mattered
form: mattered
Etymology: From Middle English matere, mater, from Anglo-Norman matere, materie, from Old French materie, matiere, from Latin materia (“wood”), from mater (“mother”), in which case cognate with Old Armenian մայր (mayr, “cedar”) and մայրի (mayri, “forest”). Doublet of Madeira, mata, mater, matrix, and mother.
Displaced Middle English andweorc, andwork (“material, matter”), from Old English andweorc (“matter, substance, material”), Old English intinga (“matter, affair, business”).
Senses: examples: text: The only thing that matters to Jim is being rich.
text: Sorry for pouring ketchup on your clean white shirt! - Oh, don't worry, it does not matter.
text: As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,[…]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get.[…]I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
ref: 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:
text: Despite further attempts by Agbonlahor and Young, however, they could not find the goal to reward their endeavour.
It mattered little as Newcastle's challenge faded and Villa began to dominate the game in midfield, and it was only Barton's continued sense of injustice that offered the visitors any spark in a tame contest.
ref: 2011 April 10, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport:
text: Not all platforms are equal. Some are busier and thus more important than others. A rural station that doesn't comply matters less than a major London terminus.
ref: 2025 October 15, Philip Haigh, “Merseyrail leads in an unlevel playing field”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 51:
glosses: To be important.
examples: text: 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 […]
ref: , Folio Society 1973, p.47
text: He matter'd not that, he said; coy maids made the fondest wives […].
ref: 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LVI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:
glosses: To care about, to mind; to find important.
raw_tags: in negative constructions
examples: text: Each slight sore mattereth.
ref: a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:
english: The New Arcadia
translation: The New Arcadia
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: To form pus or matter, as an abscess; to maturate.
Synonyms: sense: be important
word: signify
Derived terms: all lives matter
black lives matter
blue lives matter
it doesn't matter
it doesn't matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right
police lives matter
what does it matter
white lives matter