A connecting material that can suppress the occurrence of cracking during a stress load in a connection part that connects two members to be connected, further can suppress the variation in thickness in the connection part to ensure the heat dissipation performance, and can increase the connection strength is provided. The connecting material according to the present invention is a connecting material used for forming the connection part that connects two members to be connected, the connecting material contains particles and metal atom-containing particles, the particles are used for forming the connection part such that thickness of the connection part after connection is twice or less the average particle diameter of the particles before connection, or the particles have an average particle diameter of 1 μm or more and 300 μm or less, the particles have a 10% K value of exceeding 3000 N/mm2 and 20000 N/mm2 or less, and the particles have a particle diameter CV value of 10% or less.