Word Direct Answers

What does "substance" mean?

Substance: The most important element in any existence; the characteristic and essential components of anything; the main part; essential import; purport. This edition is the same in substance with the Latin. Bp. Burnet. It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only insulting, but alarming. Burke.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Body; matter; material of which a thing is made; hence, substantiality; solidity; firmness; as, the substance of which a garment is made; some textile fabrics have little substance.
  2. 3.Material possessions; estate; property; resources. And there wasted his substance with riotous living. Luke xv.
  3. 4.Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, Can not amount unto a hundred marks. Shak. We are destroying many thousand lives, and exhausting our substance, but not for our own interest. Swift.
  4. 5.(Theol.) Same as Hypostasis, 2.
  5. 6.To furnish or endow with substance; to supply property to; to make rich. [Obs.]

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