Dealing with the same matter or subject. / (law) A canon of construction holding that the meaning of an ambiguous law can be determined in light of other statutes on the same subject matter.

(medicine, archaic or historical) Synonym of pharmacology, particularly its development in early modern Europe.

(medicine, archaic or historical) Synonym of medicine: the substances so used, particularly traditional cures prepared from animals and plants such as herbal medicines but inclusive of early drugs.

plural of materfamilias

(historical) An ethereal substance once believed to fill spaces emptied of air (i.e. any vacuum) and to be capable of passing through solid objects.

The female head of a household

(alchemy) The primitive formless base of all matter, which is the starting material required for the magnum opus and the creation of the philosopher's stone.