物质是一个科学上没有明确定义的词，一般是指静止质量不为零的东西。物质也常用来泛称所有组成可观测物体的成份 。

所有可以用肉眼看到的物体都是由原子组成，而原子是由互相作用的次原子粒子所组成，其中包括由质子和中子组成的原子核，以及许多电子组成的电子云 。 一般而言科学上会将上述的复合粒子视为物质，因为他们具有静止质量及体积。相对的，像光子等无质量粒子一般不视为物质。不过不是所有具有静止质量的粒子都有古典定义下的体积，像夸克及轻子等粒子一般会视为质点，不具有大小及体积。而夸克和轻子之间的交互作用才使得质子和中子有所谓的体积，也使得一般物体有体积。

Before the 20th century, the term matter included ordinary matter composed of atoms and excluded other energy phenomena such as light or sound. This concept of matter may be generalized from atoms to include any objects having mass even when at rest, but this is ill-defined because an object's mass can arise from its (possibly massless) constituents' motion and interaction energies. Thus, matter does not have a universal definition, nor is it a fundamental concept in physics today. Matter is also used loosely as a general term for the substance that makes up all observable physical objects.