substance

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. That which has mass and occupies space; matter.
2. n. A material of a particular kind or constitution.
3. n. Essential nature; essence.
4. n. Gist; heart.
5. n. That which is solid and practical in character, quality, or importance: a plan without substance.
6. n. Density; body: Air has little substance.
7. n. Material possessions; goods; wealth: a person of substance.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. That which exists by itself, and in which accidents inhere; that which receives modifications, and is not itself a mode; that which corresponds, in the reality of things, to the subject in logic. Aristotle and Kant agree in making the conception of substance essentially the same as that of a subject of predication. But it is difficult to find a property by which substances may be recognized; for the above definition seems to afford none. Many philosophers hold that whatever is perdurable is substance. This, however, would include mechanical energy. Indeed, since every physical law can be stated in the form of an equation, and since that equation must have a constant term, it follows that every absolute uniformity of nature must consist in the perdurability of some quantity. Aristotle makes substances proper, called first substances, to be things individual; but this comports with few philosophical systems. Thus, in the medieval development of Aristotelianism, scientific propositions were regarded as universal statements concerning natures, so that the true subjects, or substances, were universal. Moreover, to make individuality the criterion of substance would seem to make space, as the source of individuality, the only first substance. At any rate, under that view, spatial positions would be substances in a preëminent sense. Others, remarking that the parts of space are not distinct in themselves, apart from their relations to material things, make self-existence, or the being distinct from all other things, not by virtue of modifications or characters, but by the thing's own nature, or arbitrary extrusion of itself, to be the chief mark of a substance, which would thus be most simply defined as an independent entity. Substance and essence are nearly synonymous, except that the latter cannot appropriately be used to designate an individual and lifeless thing.
2. n. The real or essential part; the essence.
3. n. In theology, the divine being or essence, common to the three persons of the Trinity.
4. n. The character of being a substance, in sense 1; substantiality.
5. n. The meaning expressed by any speech or writing, or the purport of any action, as contradistinguished from the mode of expression or performance.
6. n. Substantiation; that which establishes or gives firm support.
7. n. Any particular kind of corporeal matter; stuff; material; part; body: specifically, a chemical species.
8. n. Wealth; means; good estate: as, a man of substance.
9. n. Importance.
10. n. The main part; the majority.
11. n. Synonyms Pith, gist, soul.
12. To furnish with substance or property; enrich.

Wiktionary

1. n. Physical matter; material.
2. n. The essential part of anything; the most vital part.
3. n. Considerable wealth or resources.
4. n. Drugs (illegal narcotics)

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. That which underlies all outward manifestations; substratum; the permanent subject or cause of phenomena, whether material or spiritual; that in which properties inhere; that which is real, in distinction from that which is apparent; the abiding part of any existence, in distinction from any accident; that which constitutes anything what it is; real or existing essence.
2. n. The most important element in any existence; the characteristic and essential components of anything; the main part; essential import; purport.
3. n. Body; matter; material of which a thing is made; hence, substantiality; solidity; firmness.
4. n. Material possessions; estate; property; resources.
5. n. (Theol.) Same as Hypostasis, 2.
6. v. obsolete To furnish or endow with substance; to supply property to; to make rich.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. what a communication that is about something is about
2. n. the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
3. n. considerable capital (wealth or income)
4. n. a particular kind or species of matter with uniform properties
5. n. material of a particular kind or constitution
6. n. the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists
7. n. the idea that is intended