spiritual

[ spir-i-choo-uhl ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or consisting of spirit; incorporeal.
2. of or relating to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature:

   a spiritual approach to life.

3. closely akin in interests, attitude, outlook, etc.:

   the professor's spiritual heir in linguistics.

4. of or relating to spirits or to spiritualists; supernatural or spiritualistic.
5. characterized by or suggesting predominance of the spirit; ethereal or delicately refined:

   She is more of a spiritual type than her rowdy brother.

6. of or relating to the spirit as the seat of the moral or religious nature.
7. of or relating to sacred things or matters; religious; devotional; sacred.
8. of or belonging to the church; ecclesiastical:

   lords spiritual and temporal.

9. of or relating to the mind or intellect.

noun

1. a spiritual or religious song:

   authentic folk spirituals.

2. spirituals, affairs of the church.
3. a spiritual thing or matter.

spiritual

/ ˈspɪrɪtjʊəl /

adjective

1. relating to the spirit or soul and not to physical nature or matter; intangible
2. of, relating to, or characteristic of sacred things, the Church, religion, etc
3. standing in a relationship based on communication between the souls or minds of the persons involved

   a spiritual father

4. having a mind or emotions of a high and delicately refined quality

noun

1. See Negro spiritual
   See Negro spiritual
2. often plural the sphere of religious, spiritual, or ecclesiastical matters, or such matters in themselves
3. the spiritual
   the spiritual the realm of spirits

Derived Forms

• ˈspiritually, adverb
• ˈspiritualness, noun

Other Words From

• spirit·u·al·ly adverb
• spirit·u·al·ness noun
• anti·spirit·u·al adjective
• anti·spirit·u·al·ly adverb
• non·spirit·u·al adjective noun
• non·spirit·u·al·ly adverb
• non·spirit·u·al·ness noun
• pseudo·spiri·tu·al adjective
• pseudo·spiri·tu·al·ly adverb
• quasi-spirit·u·al adjective
• quasi-spirit·u·al·ly adverb
• super·spirit·u·al adjective
• super·spirit·u·al·ly adverb
• un·spiri·tu·al adjective
• un·spiri·tu·al·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of spiritual¹

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Medieval Latin spīrituālis, from Latin spīritu(s) spirit ) + -ālis -al ¹

Example Sentences

Antarctica is in its own right a spiritual kind of experience.

From Nautilus

People who experiment with psychoactive drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms frequently report spiritual fantasies.

From Popular-Science

Participants in the Catholic charismatic movement also claim spiritual and physical healing associated with the power of the Holy Spirit working through believers.

From No Straight News

It seems like there’s a difference between people who do the AT to test themselves physically and those who are maybe looking for some kind of spiritual release.

From Outside Online

For Seattle forward Alysha Clark, the difference she sees is spiritual, rather than purely emotional.

From FiveThirtyEight

Think of it as a frequent buyer program for personal karma, or a spiritual band-aid.

From The Daily Beast

But Reconcile is from a slightly different arm of Houston hip-hop—more focused on spiritual triumph over the trap.

From The Daily Beast

They are afflicted with “progressive spiritual emptiness,” he said, which no amount of academic honors and degrees can fill.

From The Daily Beast

First, though, he has to be shocked into recognizing the barren waste of his spiritual life – by spirits.

From The Daily Beast

That phenomenon is not limited to peaceniks with spiritual aspirations.

From The Daily Beast

The two enjoyed a mutual understanding from which he was excluded, a private intimacy that was spiritual, mental,— physical.

From Project Gutenberg

Hitherto the discalced Franciscan religious of this province have had charge of their spiritual matters.

From Project Gutenberg

Violent people had been pressing around John, and the cause of spiritual liberation had suffered.

From Project Gutenberg

It relates to ancient philosophical ideas concerning the spiritual and the material worlds.

From Project Gutenberg

He makes a spiritual form of it so perfectly visible to your inward eye, that it seems as if you could almost hear it breathe!

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• divine
• metaphysical
• sacred