Definition of Substance

1. Noun. The real physical matter of which a person or thing consists. "DNA is the substance of our genes"


2. Noun. The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience. "The nub of the story"

3. Noun. The idea that is intended. "What is the meaning of this proverb?"
Exact synonyms: Meaning
Generic synonyms: Idea, Thought
Specialized synonyms: Semantics, Implication, Import, Significance, Strain, Tenor, Undercurrent, Undertone, Denotation, Extension, Reference, Reference, Connotation
Derivative terms: Mean, Mean

4. Noun. Material of a particular kind or constitution. "The immune response recognizes invading substances"
Generic synonyms: Physical Entity

5. Noun. Considerable capital (wealth or income). "He is a man of means"
Exact synonyms: Means
Generic synonyms: Capital
Specialized synonyms: Pocketbook, Wherewithal

6. Noun. What a communication that is about something is about.

7. Noun. A particular kind or species of matter with uniform properties. "Shigella is one of the most toxic substances known to man"

Definition of Substance

1. n. That which underlies all outward manifestations; substratum; the permanent subject or cause of phenomena, whether material or spiritual; that in which properties inhere; that which is real, in distinction from that which is apparent; the abiding part of any existence, in distinction from any accident; that which constitutes anything what it is; real or existing essence.

2. v. t. To furnish or endow with substance; to supply property to; to make rich.

Definition of Substance

1. Noun. Physical matter; material. ¹

2. Noun. The essential part of anything; the most vital part. ¹

3. Noun. Considerable wealth or resources. ¹

4. Noun. Drugs (gloss illegal narcotics) ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Substance

1. [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Substance

subspecies
subspecific
subspecific epithet
subspecific epithets
subspecific name
subspecific names
subspectra
subspectrum
subsphenoidal
subspherical
subspinous
subsquare
subsquares
substage
substages
substance
substance abuse
substance abuser
substanceless
substances
substandard
substandardly
substandardness
substant
substantia alba
substantia grisea
substantia nigra
substantia nigras
substantiae nigrae
substantial

Literary usage of Substance

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. An essay concerning human understanding by John Locke (1823)
"If by spiritual substance, your lordship means a thinking substance, I must dissent from your lordship, and say, that we can have a certainty, ..."

2. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: To which are Now First Added, I. An by John Locke (1828)
"So that if any one will examine substance in himself concerning his notion of pure sub- general, stance in general, he will find he has no other idea of it ..."

3. A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental by David Hume (1890)
"The sugar, which is here the ' archetype' and the source of reality in the idea, is just what Locke elsewhere calls ' a particular sort of substance,' as ..."

4. An essay concerning human understanding by John Locke (1838)
"Our idea of substance in general,—So that if any one will examine himself concerning his notion of pure substance in general, presented to us, ..."

5. A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume (1874)
"The sugar, which is here the ' archetype' and the source of reality in the idea, is just what Locke elsewhere calls ' a particular sort of substance,' as ..."

6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (2001)
"should rather suspect Sh. might have written ' The dram of base Doth all the noble substance oft eat out,' &c. But granting a little farther departure from ..."

7. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, John Miller Dow Meiklejohn (1887)
"stance (negations are only determinations, which express ibz non-existence of something in the substance). Now, if lo this real in the substance we ascribe ..."

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