Matrix definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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noun A situation or surrounding substance within which something else originates, develops, or is contained: "Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every form of freedom” (Benjamin N. Cardozo).
noun The womb.
noun Anatomy The formative cells or tissue of a fingernail, toenail, or tooth.

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The womb; the uterus. All that openeth the matrix is mine. Ex. xxxiv. 19.
Hence That which incloses anything, or gives origin to anything, like a womb. A mold which gives form to material forced into it in a solid condition, or poured into it in a fluid state and allowed to harden before removal. In coining, the intaglio formed in steel by engraving, or by driving into the metal a tool called a hub, upon which the design of the coin has been produced in relief. The steel matrix is subsequently hardened and tempered. From this matrix punches for making dies are obtained by driving into it pieces of soft steel, which, after taking form from the matrix, are in their turn hardened and tempered. The instruments used in coining thus alternately take the design in cameo and intaglio, and in order as follows: (1) cameo, the hub; (2) intaglio, the matrix; (3) cameo, the punch; (4) intaglio, the die. Lastly the coin is struck in cameo by the die. The bottom die in any stamping or drop-press. In type-founding, an attachment to the mold in which the face of a type is cast, the mold proper making the body for that face. Every letter or character has its special matrix, but all the matrices of the same font are fitted to one mold. The matrix is a small flat bar of copper that has received the deeply sunken impress of the punch, or model letter cut on a rod of steel. As left by the punch it is known as a drive, or strike, or unjustified matrix. When finished and fitted to the mold it is a justified matrix. Matrices are also made by the electrotyping process. In stereotyping, the mold of plaster, papier maché, or other composition which is taken from types as arranged in the form, and into which the melted alloy called stereotypers' metal is poured in casting stereotype-plates. In mineralogy and geology, the rock in which any accidental crystal, mineral, or fossil is embedded. In mining, same as gangue, 1. [Rare and incorrect.] In odontography, the formative part of a mammalian tooth, consisting of a pulp and capsule. The former is converted into dentine, the latter into cement. In anatomy, the intercellular substance: as, the matrix of cartilage, containing corpuscles; the animal matrix of bone, impregnated with mineral salts, etc. In botany: (1) That upon which a plant is fixed or from which it grows: as, lichens which grow upon a matrix of rock. (2) Intercellular substance: as, the filaments of nostoc lie in a gelatinous matrix.
In mathematics, a rectangular array of quantities, usually square: so called because considered as a mold or set of compartments into which a certain number of quantities can be put, the leaving of one of the spaces unoccupied being in effect to put zero there. The matrix is consequently a multiple quantity having as many dimensions as it has spaces. The numbers in the spaces are called the constituents of the matrix. The following definitions relate to square matrices. The vertical lines of numbers are called the columns, the horizontal ones the rows. The diagonal running from the upper left hand to the lower right hand corner is called the principal diagonal. Constituents symmetrically situated with reference to the principal diagonal are said to be conjugate. A matrix in which every constituent is equal to its conjugate is said to be symmetrical; if all the constituents along each diagonal band transverse to the principal diagonal are equal, the matrix is said to be persymmetrical. The addition of matrices is so understood that the sum of two like matrices is a matrix every constituent of which is equal to the sum of the corresponding constituents of the parts. The multiplication of two like square matrices is so understood that the product is a matrix whose construction is of the kind shown in the following example:

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Nothing had slowed in reality, but from a relative point of view, operations within the matrix were at a near standstill The *Blind Guardian* was concentrating on the operational parameters when the message came up on his HUD UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD COMPLETE STORE? — SomethingWickedSFandHorrorMagazine#6
Each attenuation mechanism (restricted diffusion, gradient dephasing, surface or bulk relaxation) is represented by a matrix which is constructed from the Laplace operator eigenbasis and thus depending only on the geometry of the confinement. — CiteULike: Everyone's library
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- an added element in the matrix is water, used by Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan largely to generate hydroelectric power, while the downstream states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan view it as a resource for supporting agriculture rather than an energy source. — Earth News, Earth Science, Energy Technology, Environment News
The American matrix is the fantasy that claims that war criminals like Colin Powell and John McCain are "war heroes." — WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
On April 4th, 2004, my umbilical-like connection to the matrix was irrevocably smashed to smithereens when I fell on the floor screaming in agony over the murder, by the matrix, of my oldest child, Casey. — WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

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