Materijalni

Materijalni is an adjective used in several South Slavic languages, including Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian, to indicate that something relates to matter, physical substance, or tangible qualities. It contrasts with nematerijalni or duhovni, meanings immaterial or spiritual. The term stems from Latin materialis, transmitted through the common linguistic history of the region.

In ordinary usage, materijalni describes physical objects, substances, or aspects that have material form. Examples include materijalni dokazi (physical evidence), materijalna dobra (tangible property), and materijalna šteta (material or property damage). In legal and economic contexts, the word often appears in phrases that distinguish what is concrete and measurable from abstract or intangible components.

In science and engineering, materijalni refers to properties and phenomena tied to matter, such as material composition, structure, and behavior under various conditions. In philosophy, the term is linked to materialism (materijalizam), the view that reality is fundamentally material, with phrases like materijalni svijet (the material world) used to describe the physical realm as opposed to the mental or spiritual.

Grammatical notes: materijalni is an adjective and agrees with the noun it modifies in gender, number, and case. Related terms include nematerijalni (immaterial), materijalnost (materiality), and duhovni (spiritual).

See also: nematerijalni, duhovni, materijalizam.