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building material

building material

14 2.5
A thing people use to make houses and other places to live, like wood, brick, concrete
  • noun
  • /ˈbɪldɪŋ məˈtɪriəl/
translation icon : material de construcción
  • Reinforced concrete is a popular building material used for constructing bridges and high-rise buildings.
  • other building materials
  • recycled building materials
  • glass building material

A society needs energy, it needs water, it needs building materials to start building out a society.

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Examples

  • It's a fireproof building material.

  • Most green building programs also attempt to regulate the building materials that are used in furnishings.

  • While readily available and easy to shape, wood was not the best building material for cars.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Such lands have always been important to people, providing food, building materials, and other resources for our use.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Nor can engineers count on an infrastructure with access to modern power machinery and building materials.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Think of reinforced concrete, which is the greatest building material of the modern era.

  • Over time, the great quantities of building material began to accumulate on the construction site.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Native Hawaiians use plants from the forest for everything from medicines to building materials.

    Academic text (2000)
  • In order to meet LEED requirements, Punahou had to recycle as much of the building material as possible.

    Academic text (2005)
  • There are only two building materials that can't be destroyed by weather, fire or termites, and that's stone and brick.

Synonyms

material
vsbuilding material
2.1

Things like wood or cloth that are used to make objects

is specific to substances used to construct structures

How Strong

steel
536 1.4
concrete
224 1.0
building material
14 2.5
brick
440 1.0
wood
613 1.0
straw
79 1.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

building + material

The meaning 'a substance used in construction' is directly and compositionally derived from 'building' (structure) modifying 'material' (substance), a standard noun–noun compound pattern in English. This straightforward modifier-head relationship is cross-linguistically common and therefore would be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

Building material shows a simple picture: workers bring wood, brick and steel, the material, to a building site to make walls and floors. So, Building material means 'stuff used to make buildings'.