1
general::
for making clothes etc
material
noun [ uncountable and countable ] cloth used for making clothes, curtains etc:
• She bought some pretty dress material.
fabric
noun [ uncountable ] cloth used for making clothes, curtains etc:
• Man-made fabrics such as polyester are easy to wash and iron. • furnishing fabrics
cloth
noun [ uncountable ] woven material, especially material made from natural substances such as cotton and wool, which has not yet been made into any other products:
• The main trade was the production of woollen cloth.
textiles
noun [ plural ] formal a general word for all types of cloth – used especially when talking about the business of producing and selling them:
• Textiles are one of Mexico’s main exports. • the textile industry
a solid or liquid substance
material
noun [ uncountable and countable ] a substance, especially one that can be used for making things:
• building materials • The island has to import oil and other raw materials (= materials used for making things ) . • radioactive material
substance
noun [ countable ] a type of material such as a chemical or a mineral:
• The green colour of the leaf is due to a substance called chlorophyll. • Dioxin is one of the most toxic substances known to man.
matter
noun [ uncountable ] formal a type of substance – used especially in the following phrases:
• waste matter from the body • It is important to add plenty of organic matter to the soil. • People throw away lots of vegetable matter .
stuff
noun [ uncountable ] informal a substance - used especially when you do not know exactly what it is:
• What’s that sticky stuff on the floor?
Longman-Thesaurus
3
general::
noun substance ADJ. combustible, flammable, hazardous, inflammable, radioactive, toxic | recyclable | man-made things for making sth ADJ. raw Higher raw material costs have pushed up the price of many manufactured goods. | industrial | building a storeroom full of building materials | drawing, writing Prisoners were not allowed writing materials. cloth ADJ. thick, thin | coarse, fine | woven QUANT. length, piece, roll, scrap, strip A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. written matter ADJ. fascinating, good, relevant, useful | source The letter were used as source material in this new biography. | classified, confidential, sensitive | unpublished | educational, instructional, promotional, teaching | biographical, historical | indecent, obscene, pornographic He was convicted of importing indecent material. VERB + MATERIAL collect, find, gather, get hold of He's collecting material for a new book on space travel. I can't find any relevant material on him in the library. | contain, include This new biography contains a wealth of previously unpublished material. | produce, publish PREP. ~ for useful material for a documentary | ~ on original material on the First World War
Oxford Collocations Dictionary