matrix

noun

• The womb.
• The material or tissue in which more specialized structures are embedded.
• An extracellular matrix, the material or tissue between the cells of animals or plants.
• Part of the mitochondrion.
• The medium in which bacteria are cultured.
• 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.
• A two-dimensional array.
• A grid-like arrangement of electronic components, especially one intended for information coding, decoding or storage.
• A table of data.
• A geological matrix.
• (archaeology and paleontology) The sediment surrounding and including the artifacts, features, and other materials at a site.
• The environment from which a given sample is taken.
• In hot metal typesetting, a mold for casting a letter.
• In printmaking, the plate or block used, with ink, to hold the image that makes up the print.
• The cavity or mold in which anything is formed.
• (dyeing) The five simple colours (black, white, blue, red, and yellow) from which all the others are formed.
• A binding agent of composite materials, e.g. resin in fibreglass.