A matrix is a grid of numbers, or the setting something grows within. A three-by-three matrix, the matrix of the rock, a matrix of relationships.
In mathematics matrices multiply in an order that matters, which is one of the first surprises in the subject. The word comes from the Latin for a womb — a matrix is what something is held and formed in. The plural is matrices.
1noungridA grid of numbers.
“In maths class, we learned how to multiply one matrix by another.”
2nounmatrixThe setting something grows within.
“The fossils are set in a matrix of hard grey rock.”
matrix is a grid, or a setting.
Latin matrix means a womb or a breeding female, from mater, a mother. The sense of a surrounding medium came from that.
Latin
mātrīx — dam, womb
Old French
matrice — pregnant animal
Middle English
matris
English, today
matrix
Built from
From Middle English matris, matrice, matrix, from Old French matrice (“pregnant animal”), or from Latin mātrīx (“dam, womb”), both ultimately from māter (“mother”). a doublet of mother from Indo-European ancestor. Slang usage coined with the 1999 sci-fi action film The Matrix.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA