Materially

How to spell materially

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce materially

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does materially mean?

1. adverbTo a significant or substantial extent; in a way that genuinely affects the outcome.
2. adverbWith regard to physical matter or material things, as opposed to spiritual or abstract ones.

Materially in a sentence

• The new tax rules materially change how the company reports its profits.

• The retreat encouraged guests to live more simply and worry less about being materially comfortable.

• Interest rates rose enough to materially affect the monthly repayments.

• She felt spiritually fulfilled even though she was materially poor.

Where does materially come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun materia, which literally meant 'matter' or 'stuff', and in its earliest concrete use described the usable wood of a tree, the timber from which something could be built. From materia came the late Latin adjective materialis, meaning 'belonging to matter' or 'physical', and English took this up through Old French in the 1300s as 'material'. The adverb 'materially' was then formed inside English by adding the familiar -ly ending. Over time the sense broadened from the strictly physical idea of substance into the figurative notion of something that genuinely matters or makes a real difference, which is why lawyers and accountants now say a fact is 'material' to a case or a change is 'material' to the accounts. The spelling trap sits in the unstressed middle: writers must remember the full -ial- before the -ly, since the schwa vowels offer no help, and the same materia root survives openly in 'material', 'matter', and even 'materiel'.

How the word is built

• materi- (from Latin materia: matter, substance)
• -al (adjective suffix)
• -ly (adverb suffix)