Word: matrix Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English matris, matrice, matrix, from Old French matrice (“pregnant animal”), or from Latin mātrīx (“dam, womb”), both ultimately from māter (“mother”). Doublet of mother from Indo-European ancestor. Slang usage coined with the 1999 sci-fi action film The Matrix. Pronunciation: /ˈmeɪ.tɹɪks/, /ˈmæt.ɹɪks/, /ˈmæɪ.tɹɪks/, /mæːʈ.rɪks/, /meːʈ.rɪks/ 1. The cavity or mold in which anything is formed. 2. The womb. Labels: archaic Example: upon conception the inward orifice of the matrix exactly closeth, so that it commonly admitteth nothing after […] Example: In very rare cases, when the matrix just goes on pegging away automatically, the doctor can take advantage of that and ease out the second brat who then can be considered to be, say, three minutes younger […] 3. The metaphorical place where something is made, formed, or given birth. Example: When it is remembered that ritual dancing was the matrix out of which the Drama sprang, and further that the drama in its inception (as still to-day in India) was an affair of religion and was acted in, or in connection with, the Temples, it becomes easier to understand how all this mass of ceremonial sacrifices, expiations, initiations, Sun and Nature festivals, eucharistic and orgiastic communions and celebrations, mystery-plays, dramatic representations, myths and legends, etc. [...] have practically sprung from the same root: a root deep and necessary in the psychology of Man. 4. The material or tissue in which more specialized structures are embedded. 5. An extracellular matrix, the material or tissue between the cells of animals or plants. 6. Part of the mitochondrion. 7. The medium in which bacteria are cultured. 8. A table of data. 9. A rectangular arrangement of numbers or terms having various uses such as transforming coordinates in geometry, solving systems of linear equations in linear algebra and representing graphs in graph theory. Example: Theorem (7.5.2) then says that every positive semidefinite matrix is a convex combination of matrices that lie on extreme rays. Example: Check that the #92;mathcal#123;A#125;(#92;mathcal#123;D#125;)² in the example is itself the adjacency matrix of the indicated digraph: 10. A two-dimensional array. 11. Alternative letter-case form of Matrix; a controlled environment or situation in which people behave in ways that conform to pre-determined roles. Labels: alt-of, figuratively, slang Example: He'd operated on an almost permanent adrenaline high, a byproduct of youth and proficiency, jacked into a custom cyberspace deck that projected his disembodied consciousness into the consensual hallucination that was the matrix. Example: Mari Otsu, a 25-year-old Japanese-Hawaiian artist, tells me she was “desperately lonely” while she was studying at New York University, when she “realised that [she]^([sic]) was in the matrix”. I ask her what she means. 12. A grid-like arrangement of electronic components, especially one intended for information coding, decoding or storage. Example: Any type of core or diode matrix used to derive the decoding of these codes would amount to a rather large volume of terminals for just the 17,500 terminals alone. Example: The transistor matrix in the encoder supplies the sequential gates. 13. A geological matrix. 14. The sediment surrounding and including the artifacts, features, and other materials at a site. 15. The environment from which a given sample is taken. 16. In hot metal typesetting, a mold for casting a letter. Labels: historical 17. In printmaking, the plate or block used, with ink, to hold the image that makes up the print. Labels: historical 18. The five simple colours (black, white, blue, red, and yellow) from which all the others are formed. 19. A binding agent of composite materials, e.g. resin in fibreglass. Labels: material 20. Matrix clause is a clause that has another (subordinate) clause embedded within it.