An
intrinsic property is a property that an object or a thing has of itself, independently of other things, including its context. An
extrinsic (or
relational) property is a property that depends on a thing's relationship with other things. For example,
density is an intrinsic property of any
physical object, whereas
weight is an extrinsic property that varies depending on the strength of the gravitational field in which the respective object is placed. As such, the question of intrinsicality and extrinsicality in empirically observable objects is a significant field of study in
ontology, the branch of
philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of
being.