Adj. masc. Concerning an Aristotelian theory continued for most of the Scholastics, according to which any substance or concrete reality is composed of two essential principles: 1 ) matter, passive and indeterminate, not variable, and which constitutes the basis for the continuity of the physical world; 2 ) the form, active and universal, which varies in each substantial change and, providing features and properties, enabling that the thing is what it is. The word comes from the Greek nouns «ýle»: matter, and morfé: forms, as well as the suffix "iko": relative to. (Source: Kalipedia )