Matrices

How to spell matrices

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce matrices

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does matrices mean?

1. nounRectangular arrays of numbers or symbols arranged in rows and columns, used in mathematics and computing.
2. nounThe substances or structures within which something else is formed, embedded, or develops.

Matrices in a sentence

• The software multiplies two large matrices to render the graphics.

• The geologists examined the rock matrices in which the fossils were preserved.

• The linear algebra course covers how to invert matrices efficiently.

• Different bonding matrices hold the composite fibres in place.

Where does matrices come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the Latin-style plural of 'matrix', a word English took directly from Latin in the late 1500s. In Latin a matrix was a 'womb' or, by extension, a 'pregnant animal' kept for breeding, and the word grew straight out of mater, meaning 'mother'. From the idea of the womb as the place where something is formed came the broader sense of a mould or a structure in which something else is shaped or embedded. Mathematicians borrowed the term in the nineteenth century for a rectangular array of numbers, and because the word kept its Latin roots it also kept the Latin plural: the -ix ending turns into -ices rather than the English -es, which is exactly why people who write 'matrixes' are gently corrected. The same mater root sits behind 'maternal' and 'matron', a useful reminder that a matrix is, at heart, a mother form.

How the word is built

• matr- (from Latin matrix: womb, source)
• -ices (Latin plural ending replacing -ix)