materialisation

Materialisation, or materialization in American English, refers to the act or process of something becoming material or tangible, or of bringing something into existence in a physical form. It can describe the appearance of a previously absent object or the production of material form from an abstract idea, energy, or concept, across a range of contexts and disciplines.

In science, materialisation is sometimes used to discuss the conversion of energy into matter, a phenomenon allowed by relativity and quantum field theory under extreme conditions. For example, certain high-energy processes can create particle–antiparticle pairs from energy. More commonly, scientists describe matter creation or particle production rather than using the term materialisation, and the word is not a standard technical label in most fields.

In information technology, materialisation denotes the process by which data results are stored and made readily accessible. A materialized view in databases, for instance, precomputes and persists the results of a query to speed up access, in contrast to virtual or on-demand queries that are computed each time.

In cultural and occult contexts, materialisation refers to phenomena in which objects, figures, or other effects are alleged to appear in the physical world. Such materialisations are reported in séances, spiritualist traditions, and various reports of paranormal activity, though they are not supported as reproducible scientific phenomena.

In design and product development, materialisation can describe the transition from concept to tangible form, including decisions about materials, fabrication methods, and prototyping. The term emphasizes turning ideas into physical artifacts.

The spelling varies by region: materialisation in British English and materialization in American English. The concept broadly concerns changes from non-material to material states across disciplines.