materialism

CEFRC1

/məˈtɪɹiəlɪzəm/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
The belief that money and physical things are more important than spiritual values.
02
noun
Extra detail
Synonym of matter, material substances in the aggregate.

Examples

The pillars of the new world are materialism, egoism and idiocy.
You grew up with too much materialism, and now you envy your neighbours.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 4
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 4
Synonyms: 5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

The philosophical belief that nothing exists beyond what is physical.
Constant concern over material possessions and wealth; a great or excessive regard for worldly concerns.

More examples

In context

Historical materialism is a pseudoscience.
With the rise of Cartesian and Hobbesian mechanical philosophy and materialism in the 16th and 17th centuries, the classical argument for the immateriality of the intellect and will was simply ignored and then forgotten.

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Her constant craving for new expensive luxury goods clearly demonstrated her blank.

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Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

We accept that a third of the population live on the poverty line. We accept that only a handful of the most exceptional of the children of the poor will make it through to a third-level education. We accept massive examples of greed and dishonesty in public life. We except the values of materialism. What do we expect then—to be left un-harassed, we who have all the privileges?
2010, Nuala O'Faolain, “An Ugly Little War”, in A More Complex Truth
The result of the labours of philosophy appeared to be a total scepticism on the most important subjects of hu man duty and expectation. The irregular fears of a future state had been supplanted by the materialism of Epicurus; and this system—if system it may be called, which left them without a God, a providence, a morality, or a retribution—was the fashionable philosophy of the more cultivated classes.
1814, Joseph S. Buckminster, The Sermons by the Late Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster, Sermon I
Medical materialism seems indeed a good appellation for the too simple-minded system of thought which we are considering. ... All such mental over-tensions, it says, are, when you come to the bottom of the matter, mere affairs of diathesis (auto-intoxications most probably), due to the perverted action of various glands which physiology will yet discover.
1902, William James, “Lecture I”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC
With the rise of Cartesian and Hobbesian mechanical philosophy and materialism in the 16th and 17th centuries, the classical argument for the immateriality of the intellect and will was simply ignored and then forgotten.
2015 January 26, Michael Egnor, “Aristotle on the Immateriality of Intellect and Will”, in Evolution News, retrieved 11 Jan 2021

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Origin

noun

Borrowed from French matérialisme. By surface analysis, material + -ism.

Deep Dive

noun

More examples

Related

Quick test

Her constant craving for new expensive luxury goods clearly demonstrated her blank—.

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Origin

noun

Her constant craving for new expensive luxury goods clearly demonstrated her blank.