What term describes the substance that has mass and occupies space?

• A. Matter
• B. Energy
• C. Force
• D. Temperature

Answer: (A)

Matter describes the substance that has mass and takes up space. It includes all the physical stuff around us—rocks, water, air, trees, soil, and living beings. These things have mass, and they occupy volume, meaning they push against their surroundings and have inertia.

Energy, by contrast, isn’t a material substance you can weigh or fill a container with; it’s a property that describes how systems can do work or produce changes (heat, light, chemical energy, kinetic energy). Force is an interaction that can change motion or shape but isn’t itself a material thing with mass. Temperature is a measure of how hot or cold something is, related to the average kinetic energy of its particles, not a substance.

So, the term that best fits “the substance that has mass and occupies space” is matter.