substance

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A particular type of solid, liquid, or gas with its own properties.

   Water is a substance made of hydrogen and oxygen.

2. 2
   noun

   The physical material that something is made of.

   DNA is the substance that carries our genes.

3. 3
   noun

   The most important or essential part of something.

   The substance of his argument was that we should spend less.

4. 4
   noun

   An illegal drug.

   He was arrested for substance abuse.

Inherited from Middle English substance, from Old French substance, from Latin substantia (“substance, essence”), from substāns, present active participle of substō (“exist”, literally “stand under”), from sub + stō (“stand”). Displaced native Old English andweorc.

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