事物(shì wù) - thing, object (in the abstract) in Mandarin

事物 (shì wù) means a thing in the widest philosophical sense: any phenomenon, entity or state of affairs that can be talked about. It is the word for things in general, not for the things in your bag.

That distinction is the whole point of the entry. 东西 is the concrete stuff you can pick up and buy, 事情 is a matter or an affair you have to deal with, and 事物 sits above both as the abstract category. Textbooks, essays and news commentary use it constantly; friends chatting rarely do.

The trap for an English speaker is that our one word thing covers all three. Say 我买了很多事物 and you have written something that reads like a bad translation, because you cannot buy an abstract category. Buy 东西, deal with 事情, and save 事物 for sentences about how the world works.