Material, abbreviated as MATL, is the matter an object is made of.  There are four categories of material: ceramic, composite, metal and polymer.

• Ceramic - inorganic non-metallic solid comprised of either metal or non-metal compounds made by heating together these materials.
• Composite - material mixture of two or more materials with different properties combined to produce a new material.
• Metal - chemical elements that are good conductors of heat and electricity.
• Polymer - a long chain of molecules linked together.

Abbreviations

• MATL - material
• ML - material list

Associations

• List of materials associations

Material Databases

• Matbase
• National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) Materials Database