Materialism

//məˈtɪɹiəlɪzəm// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Constant concern over material possessions and wealth; a great or excessive regard for worldly concerns. countable, uncountable

    "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?"

  2. 2
    (philosophy) the philosophical theory that matter is the only reality wordnet
  3. 3
    The philosophical belief that nothing exists beyond what is physical. countable, uncountable

    "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."

  4. 4
    a desire for wealth and material possessions with little interest in ethical or spiritual matters wordnet
  5. 5
    Material substances in the aggregate; matter. countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable

Etymology

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

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