{
  "id": "physical.material",
  "term": "physical",
  "sense": "material",
  "pos": "adjective",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 2,
  "arena": "physical.adj",
  "domain": "material",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "it is matter that is in space and persists through time",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "matter.substance",
      "space.extent",
      "time.dimension",
      "persist.continue"
    ],
    "interaction": "matter occupies a region of space and continues through time, producing a material presence",
    "novel_properties": [
      "spatiotemporal continuity",
      "enduring material presence"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Higgs boson detected at CERN in 2012 occupies space and endures for 10⁻²² seconds before decaying.",
      "domain": "physics"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Great Wall of China spans 21,196 kilometers across terrain, persisting from the 7th century BCE into the present.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "A live oak tree in New Orleans' City Park, over 800 years old, continues growing through hurricanes and urban change.",
      "domain": "biology"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "real.actual",
      "note": "is-a",
      "type": "is-a"
    },
    {
      "id": "material.physical",
      "note": "is-a",
      "type": "is-a"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [
    "gold.metal",
    "print.material",
    "run.movement",
    "thread.material",
    "toys.play",
    "wireless.electrical"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "physical"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6,
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "definition",
      "note": "Added 'persist.continue' to components to align with the definition's requirement of temporal persistence."
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-physical.material"
}