matrix

• matrice (obsolete)

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.

• (UK, US)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪ.tɹɪks/, enPR: māʹtrĭks

    • Audio (US):

      (file)

  • IPA^(key): /ˈmæt.ɹɪks/, enPR: mătʹrĭks
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmæɪ.tɹɪks/
• (India) IPA^(key): /mæːʈ.rɪks/, /mɛʈ.rɪks/
• Rhymes: -eɪtɹɪks, -ætɹɪks

matrix (plural matrices or matrixes)

1. The cavity or mold in which anything is formed.
2. (now rare) The womb.
   • 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:

     upon conception the inward orifice of the matrix exactly closeth, so that it commonly admitteth nothing after […]

   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in Ada, or, Ardor: A Family Chronicle, Harmondsworth, London: Penguin Books, published 1970, →ISBN, part 2, page 269:

     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 […]

3. The metaphorical place where something is made, formed, or given birth.
   • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 172:

     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.

4. (biology) The material or tissue in which more specialized structures are embedded.
5. (biology) An extracellular matrix, the material or tissue between the cells of animals or plants.
6. (biology) Part of the mitochondrion.
7. (biology) The medium in which bacteria are cultured.
8. A table of data.
9. (mathematics) 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.
   • 1987, [1985], Roger A. Horn, Charles R. Johnson, Matrix Analysis, Paperback edition, Cambridge University Press, published 1990, page 464:

     Theorem (7.5.2) then says that every positive semidefinite matrix is a convex combination of matrices that lie on extreme rays.

   • 2003, Robert A. Liebler, Basic Matrix Algebra with Algorithms and Applications‎^[1], CRC Press (Chapman & Hall/CRC), page 64:

     Check that the ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {A}}({\mathcal {D}})^{2}}$ in the example is itself the adjacency matrix of the indicated digraph:

   • 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.

10. (computing) A two-dimensional array.
11. (slang, figurative, science fiction) Alternative letter-case form of Matrix; a controlled environment or situation in which people behave in ways that conform to pre-determined roles.
    • 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 5:

      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.

    • 2023 October 28, Jemima Kelly, “Back to school”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 20:

      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.

12. (electronics) A grid-like arrangement of electronic components, especially one intended for information coding, decoding or storage.
    • 1949, Proceedings of the Association of American Railroads:

      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.

    • 1959, John Millar Carroll, Modern Transistor Circuits:

      The transistor matrix in the encoder supplies the sequential gates.

    • 1962, Burroughs Corporation, Digital Computer Principles:

      A transistor-diode matrix is composed of vertical and horizontal wires with a transistor at each intersection.

    • 1987, David Ardayfio, Fundamentals of Robotics:

      Robot controllers range in complexity from simple stepping switches through pneumatic logic sequencers, diode matrix boards, electronic sequencers, and microprocessors to minicomputers.

    • 2002, B. Somantathan Nair, Digital Electronics and Logic Design:

      Diode matrix is the most fundamental of all ROM structure.

13. (geology) A geological matrix.
14. (archaeology, paleontology) The sediment surrounding and including the artifacts, features, and other materials at a site.
15. (analytical chemistry) The environment from which a given sample is taken.
17. (printing, historical) In hot metal typesetting, a mold for casting a letter.
18. (printing, historical) In printmaking, the plate or block used, with ink, to hold the image that makes up the print.

    Synonym: printing form

19. (dyeing) The five simple colours (black, white, blue, red, and yellow) from which all the others are formed.
20. (material science) A binding agent of composite materials, e.g. resin in fibreglass.

• (mathematics): array, table
• (table of data): array, grid, spreadsheet, table
• (computing): array

Derived from Latin matrix.

• IPA^(key): [ˈmatrɪks]

matrix m inan

1. (biology) matrix

• See mater

• matrix in Akademický slovník cizích slov, 1995, at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz
• “matrix”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

matrix

1. (mathematics) matrix

Ultimately from Latin mātrīx. Cognate with matrijs. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaːtrɪks/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ma‧trix

matrix f (plural matrices or matrixen, diminutive matrixje n)

1. (mathematics) matrix (type of array)

• eenheidsmatrix
• identiteitsmatrix

From māter +‎ -trīx, with haplology.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmaː.triːks/, [ˈmäːt̪riːks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈma.triks/, [ˈmäːt̪riks]

mātrīx f (genitive mātrīcis); third declension

1. uterus, womb
2. dam (non-human female animal kept for breeding)
3. source, origin
4. list, register

Third-declension noun.

• mātrīcālis
• mātrīcula

• “matrix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• matrix in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• matrix in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

matrix

1. Alternative form of matrice

• matriks

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.triks/
• Rhymes: -atriks
• Syllabification: ma‧trix

Unadapted borrowing from English Matrix. Doublet of matryca.

matrix m inan

1. (science fiction, slang) Matrix (simulated reality to which many humans are connected; in some works, it is created by sentient machines to subdue humans)

Unadapted borrowing from Latin mātrīx. Doublet of matryca.

matrix m inan

1. low-melting alloy of bismuth with lead (28–29%), tin (14–15%), and antimony (8.5–10.5%)

matrix f (indeclinable)

1. (cytology) intercellular substance, matrix (body substance in which tissue cells are embedded)

• matrix in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• matrix in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• matrix in PWN's encyclopedia

matrix f (uncountable)

1. Matrix
   1. fictional machine system
   2. any illusory system