important, pressing, serious, urgent, weighty
He left, saying he had pressing matters to attend to. | The question of his innocence is a weighty matter for this court.

awkward, complex, complicated, delicate, difficult
I wasn''t sure how to approach the delicate matter of pay.

no easy, (no) simple
It is then a simple matter to print off the data you have collected. | It is no simple matter starting a new business.

trifling, trivial | practical
They''ve agreed in theory, but now we need to discuss practical matters.

family, personal | subject
His articles deal with a wide range of subject matter.

economic, environmental, financial, legal, political, procedural, routine, technical
The rest of the meeting was taken up by routine matters.

different
I don''t mind lizards, but snakes are a different matter.

bring up, broach, raise
I thought I''d better broach the matter with my boss. | The matter will be raised at our next meeting.

address, debate, discuss, go into, take up
I don''t really want to go into this matter now.

pursue, take further
After legal advice I chose to take the matter further.

drop
His lawyer advised him to drop the matter.

consider, examine, look at/into, tackle | clarify, clear up, decide, resolve, settle
It''s a relief to have the matter settled.

approach, deal with, treat
Police are treating the matter as a murder enquiry.

in a/the ~
I don''t have much experience in these matters. | Do I have any choice in the matter?

on a/the ~
Speak to your manager if you need help on this matter.

~ for
The incident is definitely a matter for the police.

~ of
It''s a matter of concern to all of us. | We discussed the matter of whether or not to hire a bus. | Getting the effect you want is a matter of trial and error.

the crux/heart of the matter
(= the most important part of a subject/situation),

let the matter drop/rest
She refused to let the matter rest.

the matter in hand
Let''s concentrate on the matter in hand for now, and leave other issues till later.

complicate, confuse, make worse, not help
It didn''t help matters that I had a terrible cold. | To make matters worse, my friend then lost her keys.

arrange
She always arranges matters to suit herself.

solid | organic, vegetable
composed entirely of organic matter

inanimate, inorganic | printed, written

a great deal, a lot, really
These things matter a lot to young children.

hardly, little (formal), not much, scarcely
She could find a job. It hardly mattered what.

no longer, not any more

not seem to
Somehow it didn''t seem to matter much any more.

about
It doesn''t matter about the mess.

to
It didn''t matter to her that he was blind.