📖 M — The English dictionary · page 16

mathematician — Everyday, meaning 1: A mathematician is a person who studies maths deeply or whose job is doing maths, finding new ideas, proving things or solving hard problems.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Someone who is very good at maths can be called a good mathematician.↗ Example: Katherine Johnson was a mathematician who helped send astronauts into space.↗ · A mathematician checks that a proof works for every number.↗ · Our class has some keen young mathematicians.↗ · Pythagoras was an ancient Greek mathematician.↗ · Mathematicians use patterns to solve problems.↗ · Ada Lovelace was a mathematician and the first computer programmer.↗

mathematics — Everyday, meaning 1: The study of numbers, quantities, shapes, patterns and measurements, and the logic connecting them.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The school subject that teaches this.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: The calculations or reasoning involved in something, as in «the mathematics of the problem».↗ Example: Mathematics is my favourite subject.↗ · We have mathematics every morning.↗ · Mathematics helps us understand patterns in nature.↗ · My sister wants to study mathematics at university.↗ · The mathematics behind the game is quite simple.↗ · Builders use mathematics to measure and plan.↗ · Mathematics is the same in every language: 3 × 4 is always 12.↗ · Although tlie sexagesimal position was anciently known in Babylonia, yet it was used only, in higher mathematics, as in (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914))↗ · Miller calls attention to the recent change of view in reference to several im- portant qnestions in the history of elementary mathematics.↗ (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914))↗

matinee — Everyday, meaning 1: A matinee is a performance of a play, show or film in the afternoon.↗ Example: We went to the Saturday matinee of the pantomime.↗ · Matinee tickets are often cheaper.↗ · The matinee starts at 2 o'clock.↗ · Grandad took us to a matinee of «The Lion King».↗ · There is no matinee on Mondays.↗ · The cinema shows a kids' matinee every Sunday.↗

matriarch — Everyday, meaning 1: A matriarch is a woman who is the head of a family or group, often the oldest and most respected.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: In animal groups like elephants, the matriarch is the old female who leads the herd.↗ Example: The matriarch led the elephants to the waterhole.↗ · Granny is the matriarch of our family.↗ · Everyone listened to the matriarch's advice.↗ · Killer whale pods are led by matriarchs.↗ · The old matriarch knew every path in the forest.↗ · In the story, the matriarch ruled the family business.↗

matron — Everyday, meaning 1: A matron is a married woman, usually older and sensible, who is treated with respect.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (old use) A matron is a senior nurse or carer in charge of a hospital ward, a school or a home.↗ Example: The matron of the hospital checked on each child.↗ · She was a kind and honest matron.↗ · Two respectable matrons sat at the front of the hall.↗ · The matron wore a long grey dress and a crown.↗

matronly — Everyday, meaning 1: Matronly means like a sensible, dignified, older married woman, often a little plump and serious.↗ Example: The matronly lady scolded the boys for running.↗ · Her matronly manner made everyone sit up straight.↗ · Hera had a matronly look of strict virtue.↗

matt — Everyday, meaning 1: Not shiny; having a dull, flat surface: «matt paint», «a matt photo».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (a name) Matt is a boy's name, short for Matthew.↗ Example: We painted the walls with matt white paint.↗ · Gloss paint is shiny, but matt paint is dull.↗ · The photos came out matt, not glossy.↗ · Matt paint hides bumps on the wall better.↗ · My phone has a matt screen protector to stop glare.↗ · Matt is my best friend in class.↗ · The artist chose a matt finish for the poster.↗ · A matt surface does not reflect light like a mirror.↗

matter — Everyday, meaning 1: Matter is what everything is made of; all things that take up space and have mass are matter.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A matter is a subject or problem to deal with: a serious matter.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To matter is to be important: your feelings matter.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: «What's the matter?» asks what is wrong.↗ Early Modern English, meaning 1: An affair or subject of concern, or a thing being discussed.↗ Example: It does not matter which order you add.↗ · No matter how you count, there are 12.↗ · What is the matter with the sum?↗ · What's the matter?↗ You look sad.↗ · Everything around us is made of matter.↗ · Solids, liquids and gases are states of matter.↗ · It doesn't matter if you lose, just have fun.↗ · Every vote matters.↗ · As a matter of fact, I've already finished.↗ · “O Peter, you know it matters.”↗ · And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.↗ (Torah GEN.24.9, JPS 1917)↗ · And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.↗ (Torah EXO.18.26, JPS 1917)↗ · Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify the wicked.↗ (Torah EXO.23.7, JPS 1917)↗ · Were thy harlotries a small matter, (Prophets EZK.16.20, JPS 1917)↗ · Here is the end of the matter.↗ (Writings DAN.7.28, JPS 1917)↗ · And David said unto him: 'How went the matter?↗ (Prophets 2SA.1.4, JPS 1917)↗ · And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.↗ (Torah GEN.24.9, JPS 1917) · There's nothing the matter with me.↗ (Andersen's Fairy Tales) · A cipher for the matter: twenty-two (numbers) [objects] in one body.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation)

matting — Everyday, meaning 1: Matting is material such as rubber, rope, straw or plastic used to cover floors, often in large rolls.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Matting of hair or fur is when it tangles into thick knots.↗ Example: The gym floor is covered with soft matting.↗ · There is rubber matting under the climbing frame.↗ · The hall had straw matting on the floor.↗ · Brush your dog every day to stop matting.↗ · Put non-slip matting in the shower.↗ · We cut the matting to fit the doorway.↗ · Matting was spread for him to squat on, and the best provisions set before him.↗

mattock — Everyday, meaning 1: A mattock is a digging tool like a pickaxe, with a heavy blade on one side and a flat or pointed blade on the other, used for breaking hard ground.↗ Example: The men dug the hard ground with their mattocks.↗ · She carried a mattock up the mountain.↗ · They searched all evening, swinging their mattocks.↗ · but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his plowshare, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock.↗ (Prophets 1SA.13.20, JPS 1917)↗ · And the price of the filing was a pim for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks with three teeth, and for the axes; and to set the goads.↗ (Prophets 1SA.13.21, JPS 1917)↗ · And all the hills that were digged with the mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns, but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.↗ (Prophets ISA.7.25, JPS 1917)↗

mattress — Everyday, meaning 1: A mattress is the large, thick, soft pad that you lie on in a bed.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: An air mattress is a plastic one you fill with air, for camping or for floating on water.↗ Example: My mattress is so soft I sink into it.↗ · We blew up an air mattress for my cousin to sleep on.↗ · The old mattress was too lumpy, so we bought a new one.↗ · My little brother jumped on the mattress until Mum told him to stop.↗ · In the story, the princess could feel a pea under twenty mattresses.↗ · Inside the mattress there are hundreds of metal springs.↗ · People used to hide money under the mattress.↗ · Then she put twenty mattresses on top of the pea, and twenty eider-down quilts on the top of the mattresses.↗

mature — Everyday, meaning 1: Mature means fully grown or developed: «a mature oak tree».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Mature means behaving in a sensible, grown-up way.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (verb) To mature means to grow up, or to become ready: cheese and fruit mature with time.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (euphemism) Mature can mean older, as in «mature students».↗ Example: The caterpillar matures into a butterfly.↗ · She is very mature for her age.↗ · It takes years for an oak tree to mature.↗ · That was a mature way to settle the argument.↗ · Mature cheddar has a strong taste.↗ · Mature students go back to college as adults.↗

maturity — Everyday, meaning 1: Being grown-up and sensible in how you think and behave.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Being fully grown or developed (for animals, plants, fruit).↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (money) The date when a loan or savings bond must be paid back.↗ Example: She showed great maturity when she said sorry first.↗ · Salmon return to their river when they reach maturity.↗ · The report said Sam has grown in maturity this year.↗ · Some trees take fifty years to reach maturity.↗ · Maturity is not about age but about how you behave.↗ · The savings bond reaches maturity in five years.↗ · I became a man; I came out in full maturity.↗

matzah — Everyday, meaning 1: Matzah is a flat, thin, crispy bread made only from flour and water, without yeast, so it does not rise.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Jewish people eat matzah during the festival of Passover to remember the Exodus, when the Israelites left Egypt in a hurry and had no time to let their bread rise.↗ Example: At the Seder meal, the family broke a piece of matzah.↗ · Matzah is flat because it has no yeast in it.↗ · Jewish people eat matzah during Passover.↗ · Rachel's grandma makes matzah ball soup.↗ · The Israelites left Egypt so quickly that their bread had no time to rise.↗ · Matzah tastes like a big plain cracker.↗ · In science we compared bread with yeast and matzah without it.↗

maul — Everyday, meaning 1: To attack and hurt badly with claws and teeth, as a bear or big cat might.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To handle something or someone roughly: the toddler mauled the cake.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (informal) To beat a team or person very heavily, or to criticise strongly.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (noun, rugby) A group of players pushing together around the player holding the ball.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (noun) A heavy hammer for splitting wood.↗ Example: The hiker was mauled by a bear but survived.↗ · Never tease a dog; it might maul you.↗ · Stop mauling the bread with your dirty hands!↗ · Our team got mauled ten-nil.↗ · The critics mauled the new film.↗ · The rugby players formed a maul.↗ · Dad split the logs with a maul.↗ · The cat mauled my toy mouse.↗ · As a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow, so is a man that beareth false witness against his neighbour.↗ (Writings PRO.25.18, JPS 1917)↗ · Thou art My maul and weapons of war, and with thee will I shatter the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; (Prophets JER.51.20, JPS 1917)↗ · A maul is come up before thy face; guard the defences, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily! — (Prophets NAM.2.2, JPS 1917)↗

maundy — Everyday, meaning 1: (church) Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter, when Christians remember the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples and how he washed their feet.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (UK) Maundy money is special silver coins that the British king or queen gives to older people on Maundy Thursday.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (church) The Maundy is the ceremony of washing people's feet, done to remember Jesus' example of serving others.↗ Example: On Maundy Thursday we remember the Last Supper.↗ · The priest washed people's feet at the Maundy service.↗ · Maundy Thursday comes just before Good Friday.↗ · The king gave Maundy money to elderly people.↗ · Jesus washed his disciples' feet to show they must serve one another.↗ · Holy Week includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.↗

mausoleum — Everyday, meaning 1: A mausoleum is a large, grand tomb or building in which a dead person is buried.↗ Example: The king was buried in a huge marble mausoleum.↗ · The empty old palace was like a mausoleum.↗ · The ancient church was a quiet mausoleum for many kings.↗

maw — Everyday, meaning 1: A maw is the mouth, jaws or throat of a hungry or fierce animal.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A maw is anything that seems to swallow things up, like a big dark hole: «the maw of the cave».↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (Scotland, informal) «Maw» means mum or mother; «Paw» is dad.↗ Example: The crocodile opened its huge maw.↗ · The ship sailed into the dark maw of the storm.↗ · The dragon's maw was full of sharp teeth.↗ · The cave's black maw frightened the explorers.↗ · «Maw, can I go out to play?» asked the boy in Glasgow.↗ · The whale's maw swallowed the tiny fish.↗ · Now, just as the father pitched his younger son into the sea, a great whale-fish was coming along and swallowed him, and into its maw he went.↗ · And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.↗ (Torah DEU.18.3, JPS 1917)↗

max — Everyday, meaning 1: (informal) Short for «maximum»: the biggest amount possible.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal, adverb) At most («It'll take ten minutes max»).↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (verb, informal) max out = use up to the limit («maxed out the card»).↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (slang) «to the max» = completely.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (a name) Max, a boy's name (short for Maximilian or Maxwell).↗ Everyday, meaning 6: (maths, computing) max — the largest value in a set.↗ Example: I'll be ten minutes, max.↗ · Turn the volume up to max!↗ · The max score is 100 points.↗ · Find the max of 4, 9 and 7 — it's 9.↗ · He maxed out his phone's storage.↗ · We partied to the max.↗ · My dog is called Max.↗ · The first to perceive that max means vowels was Dunash Ibn 'J'amim *'), who explained that by the three mother letters tPOS the Sefer Yczirah meant the three vowel letters "x.↗ (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914))↗