incarnate
Americanadjective
-
embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form.
a devil incarnate.
-
personified or typified, as a quality or idea.
chivalry incarnate.
-
flesh-colored or crimson.
verb (used with object)
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incarnates,
present (3rd person singular)
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incarnated,
past participle, past
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incarnating
present participle
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to put into or represent in a concrete form, as an idea.
The building incarnates the architect's latest theories.
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to be the embodiment or type of.
Her latest book incarnates the literature of our day.
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to embody in flesh; invest with a bodily, especially a human, form.
a man who incarnated wisdom and compassion.
adjective
-
possessing bodily form, esp the human form
a devil incarnate
-
personified or typified
stupidity incarnate
-
(esp of plant parts) flesh-coloured or pink
verb
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to give a bodily or concrete form to
-
to be representative or typical of
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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incarnatesimple
-
incarnatessimple
-
have incarnatedperfect
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has incarnatedperfect
-
am incarnatingprogressive
-
are incarnatingprogressive
-
is incarnatingprogressive
-
have been incarnatingperfect progressive
-
has been incarnatingperfect progressive
Past
-
incarnatedsimple
-
had incarnatedperfect
-
was incarnatingprogressive
-
were incarnatingprogressive
-
had been incarnatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of incarnate
First recorded in 1350–1400; late Middle English, from Late Latin incarnātus, past participle of incarnāre “to make into flesh,” equivalent to in- “in” + carn- “flesh” + -ātus past participle suffix; see in- 2, carnal, -ate 1
Explanation
Incarnate means “having a bodily form.” If you encounter someone who pulls off butterflies’ wings for fun, you might describe that person as “evil incarnate.” The meaning of incarnate is precisely what its Latin roots suggest. The prefix in- means “in” and caro means “flesh,” so incarnate means “in the flesh.” The word can be used in positive or negative situations, but it always describes an unusual, possibly miraculous instance in which something that can’t normally be seen or touched assumes a bodily form. For example, the Christian religion was founded on the belief that Jesus was God incarnate.
Vocabulary lists containing incarnate
Christmas Carol Vocab: A Lyrical Lexicon
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Death of a Salesman
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Words from Shakespearean Insults
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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.
See Examples For:
Here, in effect, stood American corporations incarnate: massive, spectacular, inventive, prosperous, self-confident.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
The former cop and Secret Service agent spent nearly a decade losing three congressional races in two different states before settling into a groove as steroids incarnate with a microphone.
From Slate ● Mar. 1, 2025
Rep. Matt Gaetz said, “Mr. Weiss was here incarnate, but not particularly in spirit.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 7, 2023
Afterwards Kolisi, the Springboks' skipper and spirit incarnate, spoke about distinctive mood music that accompanies his team's matches.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2023
And somehow even this was part of the search—the physical beauty of the black body was all our beauty, historical and cultural, incarnate.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Santos incarnates its venal and ridiculous side, the part rooted in reality TV and get-rich-quick schemes.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 3, 2023
Gabriel Attal, the government spokesman, told Europe 1 radio that Ms. Baker was a “magnificent symbol who incarnates the love for France that can also come from people who are not born here.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2021
Gawain, whom Patel inhabits even more assuredly than he did David Copperfield, himself incarnates that religio-cultural tension.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2021
For Taseer, Benares incarnates a curious quality of modernity: the city makes anthropologists of the devout and believers of the skeptical.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 30, 2019
Popular imagination incarnates in a real man its ideal of heroism, of loyalty, of love, of piety, or of cowardice, cruelty, wickedness, and other abnormalities.
From Essay on the Creative Imagination by Albert Heyem Nachmen Baron
"She truly incarnated the love and passion of Jesus for people here," she added.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
“Robert Badinter never ceased to advocate the Enlightenment,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media, hailing him as a “figure of the century” who incarnated the “French spirit.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
Memphis, a guitar-strumming gentle giant with a country bumpkin way — touchingly incarnated by Sheldon D. Brown — is the main target of Waters’ irrational ire.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2023
Many people dislike her decisions, but there has been little organized protest—no one I spoke to could name a politician who incarnated the opposition.
From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2023
He was street nobility incarnated in someone who still believed in dreams.
From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez
Aretha became a revolution by incarnating powerful ideas and desires that were sloshing around seeking a vessel strong enough to contain them.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 16, 2018
Scott Shepherd and Ari Fliakos take turns incarnating the brash, bumptious Mailer, whose offensive remarks rile the panelists and audience member to the point of near riot.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2017
The first softens as it goes, incarnating Jesus’ earthly despair:
From Slate ● Jan. 7, 2016
Pope Francis is really incarnating for us the meaning of the Gospel.
From Time ● Jun. 10, 2015
For mythopœia is just this, the incarnating the spirit of natural fact; and the generic name of that power is Art.
From Great Pictures, As Seen and Described by Famous Writers by Esther Singleton
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.
