Matrix

How to spell matrix

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce matrix

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does matrix mean?

1. nounA rectangular arrangement of elements in rows and columns, such as numbers, data, or factors.
2. nounThe surrounding substance, mould, or structure within which something is embedded, formed, or develops.

Matrix in a sentence

• The analyst plotted each risk in a colour-coded matrix of rows and columns.

• The fossil was preserved in a hard matrix of fine grey rock.

• In linear algebra, multiplying one matrix by another follows strict rules.

• Each fibre is bonded into a resin matrix to make the composite panel.

Where does matrix come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes directly from the Latin matrix, which originally meant 'womb' and also 'a breeding female' or 'source'. That noun was built on mater, the ordinary Latin word for 'mother', so a matrix was literally the mother-thing from which something else grows. English borrowed it in the late 1300s, at first in the anatomical sense of the womb, and over the following centuries the meaning widened to any surrounding structure that gives rise to or holds something, such as the mould into which metal is cast or the rock in which a gem is embedded. In the nineteenth century mathematicians adopted it for a rectangular array of numbers, and from there it spread into data, engineering, and management charts. The shared mater root still links matrix to everyday relatives like 'maternal' and 'matron', and that single t before the r-i-x is the small spelling detail worth fixing in memory.

How the word is built

• matr- (from Latin mater: mother)
• -ix (feminine noun suffix)