incorporeal
Americanadjective
-
not corporeal or material; insubstantial.
- Synonyms:
- immaterial, spiritual, bodiless
-
of, relating to, or characteristic of nonmaterial beings.
-
Law. without material existence but existing in contemplation of law, as a franchise.
adjective
-
without material form, body, or substance
-
spiritual or metaphysical
-
law having no material existence but existing by reason of its annexation of something material, such as an easement, touchline, copyright, etc
an incorporeal hereditament
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of incorporeal
1525–35; < Latin incorpore ( us ) + -al 1. See in- 3, corporeal
Explanation
Something that has no material form or physical substance can be described as incorporeal. If you believe in spirits or ghosts that can't be touched or seen but only felt, then you believe in the incorporeal. Incorporeal comes from a combination of the Latin root words in- meaning "not" and corpus meaning "body." Combined they form incorporeus, meaning "without body," which is precisely what something incorporeal is. A haunted house is plagued by incorporeal, or immaterial spirits. You don't see them, but they are there, rattling windows, slamming doors, scaring the living daylights out of you.
Vocabulary lists containing incorporeal
Paradise Lost
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"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, Chapters 21–26
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Legendborn
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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.
In many ways, they are physical manifestations of artificial intelligence—an incorporeal technology—that’s fueling both big dreams and new nightmares.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Those $200 in chips made the questions of financial responsibility that loomed over me in every other avenue of my life gloriously incorporeal.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025
“It would mean that any criticism of the central government can be described as a terrorist act because the honor of India is its incorporeal property,” the court said in its bail order.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 2023
Their physical bodies — and your own — get entangled with those pictorial references to bodily experience, bringing a ghostly, incorporeal picture home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2022
Invisible, incorporeal, insubstantial as a murmur, Sarai slipped into their dreams, and what she discovered there, in the hours that followed, proved that the strangers were far from ridiculous.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
