noun
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the state or quality of being physical or material
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substance; matter
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of materiality
From the Medieval Latin word māteriālitās, dating back to 1520–30. See material, -ity
Explanation
Materiality is the quality of a physical substance that you can actually feel. Seeing a fluffy beanbag chair online is one thing, but in-person, you can appreciate its materiality. Materiality is a complicated word with several definitions. One way to think of it is as "the quality of consisting of matter." Architects talk about the materiality of actual buildings constructed with materials (rather than images rendered on a computer). When anthropologists discuss the materiality of artifacts, they're talking about their physical properties. In law, on the other hand, materiality means "relevance" or "importance" — in other words, how much something matters.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“There’s something that happens with real materiality, real construction, there’s an alchemy to it,” Hawley says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2026
It includes, or at least invites, us—drawing us into the scene as our gaze continues upward into celestial immateriality, all courtesy of the materiality of paint.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
In recent years, the centre has commissioned fourteen exhibitions by diverse international artists - including Adham Faramawy, Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye and Abi Palmer - which have explored themes from climate crisis to materiality.
From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2025
Alys and Helaena fulfill their truest purpose outside the confines of mind and materiality, using the heart tree of Harrenhal's godswood.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2024
Oh, yes, we are already growing tired of materiality.
From Carmen Ariza by Stocking, Charles Francis
Teachers, being purely ethereal she felt, never descended to the discussion of materialities.
From Suzanna Stirs the Fire by Blake, Emily Calvin
The materialities were not invented in the interest of righteousness; that there is more righteousness in the world because of them than there, was before, is hardly demonstrable, I think.
From Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 5 (1901-1906) by Paine, Albert Bigelow
Abner accepted his environment; after all, he might force the conversation to soar far above the mere materialities.
From Under the Skylights by Fuller, Henry Blake
His clothes were a necessary envelope, to which he paid not the slightest attention, for his eyes looked too high among the clouds to concern themselves with such materialities.
From A Daughter of Eve by Balzac, Honoré de
Suzanna stood a long time at the window, so long indeed that Maizie feared she was lost to all materialities.
From Suzanna Stirs the Fire by Blake, Emily Calvin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
