substance

• substaunce (archaic)

From Old French substance, from Latin substantia (“substance, essence”), from substāns, present active participle of substō (“exist; literally, stand under”), from sub + stō (“stand”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌbstəns/, [ˈsʌbstənts]

• Audio (US)

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• Audio

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substance (countable and uncountable, plural substances)

1. Physical matter; material.
   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

   • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

2. The essential part of anything; the most vital part.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     Heroic virtue did his actions guide, / And he the substance, not the appearance, chose.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Bishop Burnet

     This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Burke

     It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only insulting, but alarming.

3. Substantiality; solidity; firmness.

   Some textile fabrics have little substance.

4. Material possessions; estate; property; resources.

   a man of substance

   • Bible, Luke xv. 13

     And there wasted his substance with riotous living.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, / Cannot amount unto a hundred marks.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Jonathan Swift

     We are destroying many thousand lives, and exhausting our substance, but not for our own interest.

5. A form of matter that has constant chemical composition and characteristic properties.
6. Drugs (illegal narcotics)

   substance abuse

7. (theology) Hypostasis.

• (physical matter): matter, stuff; See also Thesaurus:substance
• (essential part of anything): crux, gist; See also Thesaurus:gist
• (drugs): dope, gear; See also Thesaurus:recreational drug

• subsist
• substantial
• substantive

substance (third-person singular simple present substances, present participle substancing, simple past and past participle substanced)

1. (rare, transitive) To give substance to; to make real or substantial.
   • 1873, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, The Other Girls (page 335)

     If life were nothing but what gets phrased and substanced, the world might as well be rolled up and laid away again in darkness.

   • 1982, Dhupaty V. K. Raghavacharyulu, The Song of the Red Rose and Other Poems (page 78)

     The calm ruminating / Reverie, substancing / Intellect into emotion, / Is shelter enough for love / Unhumiliated by faith.

• style

Borrowed from Latin substantia (“substance, essence”), from substāns, present active participle of substō (“exist; literally, stand under”), from sub + stō (“stand”).

• IPA^(key): /syp.stɑ̃s/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

substance f (plural substances)

1. substance

• substantiation
• substantiel
• substantif

• “substance” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• cubassent

• sostance
• sustance

Borrowed from Latin substantia.

substance f (oblique plural substances, nominative singular substance, nominative plural substances)

1. most essential; substantial part
2. existence

• substantiel

• English: substance (borrowed)
• French: substance