matrix

noun — 20 senses

matrix

noun

/ˈmeɪ.tɹɪks/ · /ˈmæt.ɹɪks/

Etymology 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.

20 senses
  1. 1The cavity or mold in which anything is formed.
  2. 2The womb.
  3. 3The metaphorical place where something is made, formed…
  4. 4The material or tissue in which more specialized…
  5. 5An extracellular matrix, the material or tissue between…
  6. 6Part of the mitochondrion.
  7. 7The medium in which bacteria are cultured.
  8. 8A table of data.
  9. 9A rectangular arrangement of numbers or terms having…
  10. 10A two-dimensional array.
  11. 11Alternative letter-case form of Matrix; a controlled…
  12. 12A grid-like arrangement of electronic components…
  13. 13A geological matrix.
  14. 14The sediment surrounding and including the artifacts…
  15. 15The environment from which a given sample is taken.
  16. 16In hot metal typesetting, a mold for casting a letter.
  17. 17In printmaking, the plate or block used, with ink, to…
  18. 18The five simple colours (black, white, blue, red, and…
  19. 19A binding agent of composite materials, e.g. resin in fibreglass.
  20. 20Matrix clause is a clause that has another (subordinate)…
1

The cavity or mold in which anything is formed.

2

Archaic The womb.

  • 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:
3

The metaphorical place where something is made, formed, or given birth.

  • 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:
4

Biology, Natural sciences The material or tissue in which more specialized structures are embedded.

5

Biology, Natural sciences An extracellular matrix, the material or tissue between the cells of animals or plants.

6

Biology, Natural sciences Part of the mitochondrion.

7

Biology, Natural sciences The medium in which bacteria are cultured.

8

A table of data.

9

Mathematics, Sciences A rectangular arrangement of numbers or terms having various uses such as transforming coordinates in geometry, solving systems of linear equations in linear algebra and representing graphs in graph theory.

  • 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:
2 more examples
  • 2007, Gerhard Kloos, Matrix Methods for Optical Layout, SPIE Press, page 25, The matrix describing the reflection at a plane mirror can be obtained by taking the matrix for reflection at a spherical reflector and letting the radius of the spherical mirror tend to infinity.
  • The Fibonacci numbers have been widely studied, and the different ways to generate those numbers have gained continued interest, among them matrix methods [10], determinants [5], permanents [6], Pascal’s triangle [9], binomial coefficients [3], and many others [8]. […] In [1] two tridiagonal Toeplitz matrices were presented […]2019 June 24, Juan Triana, “Negafibonacci Numbers via Matrices”, in Bulletin of TICMI, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, archived from the original on 13 Jul 2019, Introduction, page 1:
10

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A two-dimensional array.

11

Literature, Media, Publishing, Science fiction Figuratively, Slang Alternative letter-case form of Matrix; a controlled environment or situation in which people behave in ways that conform to pre-determined roles.

  • He'd operated on an almost permanent adrenaline high, a byproduct of youth and proficiency, jacked into a custom cyberspace deck that projected his disembodied consciousness into the consensual hallucination that was the matrix.1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 5:
  • Mari Otsu, a 25-year-old Japanese-Hawaiian artist, tells me she was “desperately lonely” while she was studying at New York University, when she “realised that [she]^([sic]) was in the matrix”. I ask her what she means.2023 October 28, Jemima Kelly, “Back to school”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20:
12

Business, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics A grid-like arrangement of electronic components, especially one intended for information coding, decoding or storage.

  • Any type of core or diode matrix used to derive the decoding of these codes would amount to a rather large volume of terminals for just the 17,500 terminals alone.1949, Proceedings of the Association of American Railroads:
  • The transistor matrix in the encoder supplies the sequential gates.1959, John Millar Carroll, Modern Transistor Circuits:
3 more examples
  • A transistor-diode matrix is composed of vertical and horizontal wires with a transistor at each intersection.1962, Burroughs Corporation, Digital Computer Principles:
  • Robot controllers range in complexity from simple stepping switches through pneumatic logic sequencers, diode matrix boards, electronic sequencers, and microprocessors to minicomputers.1987, David Ardayfio, Fundamentals of Robotics:
  • Diode matrix is the most fundamental of all ROM structure.2002, B. Somantathan Nair, Digital Electronics and Logic Design:
13

Geography, Geology, Natural sciences A geological matrix.

14

Archaeology, Biology, History, Human sciences, Natural sciences, Paleontology, Sciences The sediment surrounding and including the artifacts, features, and other materials at a site.

15

The environment from which a given sample is taken.

Analytical chemistry

16

Media, Printing, Publishing Historical In hot metal typesetting, a mold for casting a letter.

17

Media, Printing, Publishing Historical In printmaking, the plate or block used, with ink, to hold the image that makes up the print.

18

Business, Dyeing, Manufacturing, Textiles The five simple colours (black, white, blue, red, and yellow) from which all the others are formed.

19

Science, Sciences Material A binding agent of composite materials, e.g. resin in fibreglass.

20

Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Matrix clause is a clause that has another (subordinate) clause embedded within it.

Synonyms
array, table, grid, spreadsheet
Derived terms
43 termsbimatrix, biomatrix, comatrix, cytomatrix, dot-matrix, dot matrix printer, hemimatrix, hypermatrix, impact matrix printer, intramatrix, matrician, matrisome, matrix algebra, matrix clause, matrix decomposition, matrix diagram, matrixectomy, matrixed, matrix group, matrixial, Matrixism, matrix isolation, matrix language, matrixlike, matrix management, matrix mechanics, matrix metalloproteinase, matrix mixer, matrix protein, matrixwise, matroid, multimatrix, nanomatrix, neuromatrix, nonmatrix, perimatrix, polymatrix, pro-matrix metalloproteinase, semimatrix, sociomatrix, submatrix, supermatrix, trimatrix
Related terms
alma mater, matriculate
Hyponyms
62 termsactive matrix, adjacency matrix, augmented matrix, biomatrix, Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, Cartan matrix, CKM matrix, coefficient matrix, conference matrix, Coxeter matrix, data matrix, defective matrix, degenerate matrix, density matrix, diagonal matrix, dot matrix, eigenmatrix, Eisenhower matrix, elementary matrix, extracellular matrix, Fock matrix, geological matrix, germinal matrix, Hankel matrix, Hermitian matrix, Hessian matrix, identity matrix, incidence matrix, interaction matrix, inverse matrix, invertible matrix, Jacobian matrix, Jordan matrix, Laplacian matrix, mitochondrial matrix, nuclear matrix, null matrix, orthogonal matrix, Pauli matrix, Plücker matrix, polymatrix, projection matrix, right stochastic matrix, Rumsfeld matrix, singular matrix, skew-symmetric matrix, S-matrix, square matrix, stochastic matrix, symmetric matrix, symplectic matrix, territorial matrix, Toeplitz matrix, transfer matrix, transformation matrix, transition matrix, triangular matrix, Tutte matrix, unitary matrix, unit matrix, wavelet matrix, zero matrix

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.