spiritual
Americanadjective
-
of, relating to, or consisting of spirit; incorporeal.
-
of or relating to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature.
a spiritual approach to life.
-
closely akin in interests, attitude, outlook, etc..
the professor's spiritual heir in linguistics.
-
of or relating to spirits or to spiritualists; supernatural or spiritualistic.
-
characterized by or suggesting predominance of the spirit; ethereal or delicately refined.
She is more of a spiritual type than her rowdy brother.
-
of or relating to the spirit as the seat of the moral or religious nature.
-
of or relating to sacred things or matters; religious; devotional; sacred.
-
of or belonging to the church; ecclesiastical.
lords spiritual and temporal.
-
of or relating to the mind or intellect.
noun
-
a spiritual or religious song, especially one composed by and for Black Americans during the period of legalized slavery in the United States.
Spirituals like “Go Down, Moses” were sometimes used as signals on the Underground Railroad.
-
spirituals, affairs of the church.
-
a spiritual thing or matter.
adjective
-
relating to the spirit or soul and not to physical nature or matter; intangible
-
of, relating to, or characteristic of sacred things, the Church, religion, etc
-
standing in a relationship based on communication between the souls or minds of the persons involved
a spiritual father
-
having a mind or emotions of a high and delicately refined quality
noun
-
See Negro spiritual
-
(often plural) the sphere of religious, spiritual, or ecclesiastical matters, or such matters in themselves
-
the realm of spirits
Other Word Forms
- antispiritual adjective
- antispiritually adverb
- nonspiritual adjective
- nonspiritually adverb
- nonspiritualness noun
- pseudospiritual adjective
- pseudospiritually adverb
- quasi-spiritual adjective
- quasi-spiritually adverb
- spiritually adverb
- spiritualness noun
- superspiritual adjective
- superspiritually adverb
- unspiritual adjective
- unspiritually adverb
Etymology
Origin of spiritual
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Medieval Latin spīrituālis, from Latin spīritu(s) spirit + -ālis -al 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The latter will serve as one of the spiritual tentpoles of the space.
From Los Angeles Times
She vowed to guarantee the peace of the country, "the spiritual tranquillity of our people, the economic and social tranquillity of our people".
From BBC
Before that, when I was assigned a similar reading list as a student at Boston College, a Jesuit school, the goal was to cultivate moral and spiritual discernment.
King Charles, as head of state, is the head of the Church of England, but the Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior bishop and the spiritual leader of the Church and worldwide Anglican Communion.
From BBC
Since 2013, he had been a spiritual and moral presence with a consistent emphasis on compassion, humility and care for the marginalized.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
