What is the difference between matrix and array?

Question

What is the more generalized term? Why is MATLAB named matrix laboratory, then?

Answer 1

If you're asking about MATLAB, the word "matrix" typically refers to a 2d array, whereas an "array" can be n-dimensional.

Early versions of MATLAB supported only 2d matrices, not n-dimensional arrays. I believe support for n-dimensional arrays was introduced in version 5 of MATLAB.