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How is materialism different from idealism?

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Bronze bust of Epicurus with a full beard and draped clothing, displayed on a round inscribed base at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. — Materialism Epicurus, bronze bust from a Greek original, c. 280–270 bce; in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

In philosophy, materialism and idealism represent opposing monistic theories regarding the fundamental nature of reality.1

Materialism

Materialism is the view that the world is entirely material, consisting solely of matter. It posits that all facts, including those concerning the human mind and consciousness, are causally dependent upon or reducible to physical processes. Materialists reject the existence of immaterial substances or properties, asserting that everything that exists is physical in nature.21

Idealism

In contrast, idealism stresses the central role of the ideal or the spiritual in interpreting experience. It holds that reality exists essentially as spirit or consciousness, or that the world is known primarily through mental dimensions and ideas. While materialism views matter as the basic substance of the world, idealism asserts the ideality of reality, often arguing that mental qualities are more fundamental than material ones.31

These two positions are fundamentally at odds: materialism seeks to explain the world through physical forms and processes, whereas idealism interprets the world through the lens of the mind and its perceptions.13