noun

• (cosmology, now chiefly historical) In the Big Bang theory, the hot and dense plasma that made up the matter in the cosmos following the initial baryogenesis at an early stage of its expansion and cooling, from which the first atoms formed and photons decoupled. The emission of photons in this phase is regarded as the source of the cosmic microwave background.
  "Very shortly after the beginning of the universal expansion, the ylem was a gas of neutrons only. [Footnote: According to Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd Ed., the word ‘ylem’ is an obsolete noun meaning ‘The primordial substance from which the elements were formed.’ It seems highly desirable that a word of so appropriate a meaning be resurrected.]"