matter

«matter» in Mova's school dictionary: what everything is made of; all things that take up space… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (matter, matters); verb (matter, matters, mattered, mattering)

meaning for a pupil

1) Matter is what everything is made of; all things that take up space and have mass are matter. tree →

2) A matter is a subject or problem to deal with: a serious matter. tree →

3) To matter is to be important: your feelings matter. tree →

4) «What's the matter?» asks what is wrong. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths problems it is a word of the story or of the explanation only; «the order does not matter» means it is adding or multiplying (you can swap the numbers). In science matter comes in solids, liquids and gases. In everyday life: «It doesn't matter» (it is not important), «no matter what», «as a matter of fact».

examples

• It does not matter which order you add. tree →
• No matter how you count, there are 12. tree →
• What is the matter with the sum? tree →
• What's the matter? You look sad. tree →
• Everything around us is made of matter. tree →
• Solids, liquids and gases are states of matter. tree →
• It doesn't matter if you lose, just have fun. tree →
• Every vote matters. tree →
• As a matter of fact, I've already finished. tree →
• “O Peter, you know it matters.” tree →

note

Science sense is uncountable (matter); the «subject» sense is countable (matters). Regular verb: mattered. «No matter» = whatever, however. Maths: no clue about the quantities. In explanations «the order does not matter» means it is adding or multiplying, not subtracting or dividing.

In the corpora

• Staying up too late makes adults tired the next day, and children's sleep matters even more for growing and learning.
• If a "We'll see" matters to you, ask calmly what would need to change for it to become a yes.
• Being often late can lose someone a job or upset friends, because it says other people's time does not matter.
• No tool is perfect, so the two steps still matter, and an accident never changes who you are.
• So play, laugh and enjoy beating the bot at your own riddles, and check anything that matters.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «matter» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.