Material is a broad term for a chemical substance or mixture of substances that constitute a thing.
In the metaphysical sense, materials can be anything something else is consisting of, whether pure or impure, a singular composite or a complex mix, living or non-living matter, whether natural or man -made, either concrete or abstract. Materials can be classified based on different properties such as physical and chemical properties (see List of materials properties), geological, biological, choreographical, or philosophical properties. In the physical sense, materials are studied in materials science.
In industry, materials are inputs to production or manufacturing processes. They may either be raw material, that is, unprocessed, or processed before being used in more advanced production processes, either by distillation or synthesis (synthetic materials).
