Matrix Meaning
/ˈmeɪ.tɹɪks/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe cavity or mold in which anything is formed.
nounThe womb.
Sentence Examples
The inverse of a non-square matrix is a dangerous thing.
It makes things easier if your matrix is sparse.
CEFR Practice Quiz
A rectangular ____ of numbers is a key tool in computer graphics.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The designer created a ____ of various colors and textures to help clients choose their preferences.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English matris, matrice, matrix, from Old French matrice (“pregnant animal”), or from Latin mātrīx (“dam, womb”), both ultimately from māter (“mother”). Doublet of mother from Indo-European ancestor. Slang usage coined with the 1999 sci-fi action film The Matrix.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"upon conception the inward orifice of the matrix exactly closeth, so that it commonly admitteth nothing after […]"
— 1650, Thomas Browne, “Enquiries into Vulgar”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 122:
"In very rare cases, when the matrix just goes on pegging away automatically, the doctor can take advantage of that and ease out the second brat who then can be considered to be, say, three minutes younger […]"
— 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in Ada, or, Ardor: A Family Chronicle, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1970, →ISBN, part 2, page 269:
"When it is remembered that ritual dancing was the matrix out of which the Drama sprang, and further that the drama in its inception (as still to-day in India) was an affair of religion and was acted in, or in connection with, the Temples, it becomes easier to understand how all this mass of ceremonial sacrifices, expiations, initiations, Sun and Nature festivals, eucharistic and orgiastic communions and celebrations, mystery-plays, dramatic representations, myths and legends, etc. [...] have practically sprung from the same root: a root deep and necessary in the psychology of Man."
— 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 172:
"Theorem (7.5.2) then says that every positive semidefinite matrix is a convex combination of matrices that lie on extreme rays."
— 1987, [1985], Roger A. Horn, Charles R. Johnson, Matrix Analysis, Paperback edition, Cambridge University Press, published 1990, page 464:
"Check that the #92;mathcal#123;A#125;(#92;mathcal#123;D#125;)² in the example is itself the adjacency matrix of the indicated digraph:"
— 2003, Robert A. Liebler, Basic Matrix Algebra with Algorithms and Applications, CRC Press (Chapman & Hall/CRC), page 64:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
A rectangular ____ of numbers is a key tool in computer graphics.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The designer created a ____ of various colors and textures to help clients choose their preferences.