A wear-resistant material which comprises certain concentrations of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, niobium/tantalum as well as other metallic elements. The material comprises a metal matrix and hard phases embedded therein. The hard phases comprise one or more of carbides, nitrides, carbonitrides, and oxide carbonitrides and have a diameter of from about 0.2 μm to about 50 μm. This abstract is neither intended to define the invention disclosed in this specification nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.