Material or materiel?
material is an adjective meaning “Of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical”; materiel is a noun meaning “Military equipment, apparatus, and supplies”. Use material as an adjective and materiel as a noun (material is also a noun: “A basic matter (as metal, wood, plastic, fiber, etc.) from…”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) material is about 141 times as common as materiel.
What is the difference between material and materiel?
| material | materiel | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | Of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical Of, relating to, or affecting physical well-being; corporeal; bodily A basic matter (as metal, wood, plastic, fiber, etc.) from which the whole or the greater part of something physical (as a machine, tool, building, fabric… | Military equipment, apparatus, and supplies |
| Example | This compound has a number of interesting material properties | none recorded |
| Forms | none | materiels matériels |
| Pronunciation | /məˈtɪə.ɹi.əl/ /məˈtɪɹ.i.əl/ | /mətɪəɹɪˈɛl/ /mətɪɹiˈɛl/ /mətɪɹˈjɛl/ |
| In writing | 89 times per million words | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: material and materiel in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of material and materiel
material
- 1
Of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical
This compound has a number of interesting material properties
- 2
A basic matter (as metal, wood, plastic, fiber, etc.) from which the whole or the greater part of something physical (as a machine, tool, building, fabric, etc.) is made
Asphalt, composed of oil and sand, is a widely used material for roads
- 3
Of, relating to, or affecting physical well-being; corporeal; bodily
material needs
- 4
A person, or people collectively, who are qualified or suited for a certain position or activity
boy/girlfriend material
- 5
Of or relating to the matter of reasoning, as distinguished from the form of it, especially empirical
material cause
- 6
Apparatus for doing or making something
- 7
Having real importance or great consequences; significant; substantial
found a material difference between two things
- 8
Something (as data, observations, perceptions or ideas) that may be incorporated, elaborated or otherwise reworked into a finished form or new form, or may serve as the basis for arriving at…
teaching materials
materiel
- 1
Military equipment, apparatus, and supplies
- 2
Alternative spelling of materiel
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, material or materiel?
material appears 89 times per million words; materiel about once in every 2 million words.
material 89 times per million wordsmateriel about once in every 2 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search material vs materiel?
“material vs materiel” is searched about 2,900 times a month on Google and 180 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“materiel vs material”, “material or materiel”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.