state of matter

n. (Chemistry) fundamental condition of matter, condition of matter (such as solid, liquid and gas)

In the physical sciences, a state of matter is one of the many ways that matter can interact with itself to form a macroscopic, homogenous phase. The most familiar examples of states of matter are solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas; the most common state of matter in the visible universe is plasma. Less familiar phases include: quark-gluon plasma; Bose-Einstein condensates and fermionic condensates; quantum spin Hall state; degenerate matter; strange matter; superfluids and supersolids; and possibly string-net liquids.
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In the physical sciences, a phase is a set of states of a macroscopic physical system that have relatively uniform chemical composition and physical properties (i.e. density, crystal structure, index of refraction, and so forth).
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Noun
1. (chemistry) the three traditional states of matter are solids (fixed shape and volume) and liquids (fixed volume and shaped by the container) and gases (filling the container); "the solid state of water is called ice"
(synonym) state
(hypernym) chemical phenomenon
(hyponym) phase, form
(attribute) solid
(classification) chemistry, chemical science

A specific arrangement of atoms which is distinct from any other that a substance might possess. For example: water can exist in three obvious states of matter. As water vapour (a gas), as water (a liquid) and as ice (a solid). Within each of these obvious states, others are often possible. The change from one state into another is known as a phase change .

There are three common states of matter: gases , liquids , and solids . States of matter differ in the way the molecules are arranged at the molecular level, but not in the structure of the molecules themselves. Other states (the plasma and Bose-Einstein condensate states) are uncommon on Earth.