spiritual
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or consisting of spirit; incorporeal.
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of or relating to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature.
a spiritual approach to life.
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closely akin in interests, attitude, outlook, etc..
the professor's spiritual heir in linguistics.
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of or relating to spirits or to spiritualists; supernatural or spiritualistic.
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characterized by or suggesting predominance of the spirit; ethereal or delicately refined.
She is more of a spiritual type than her rowdy brother.
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of or relating to the spirit as the seat of the moral or religious nature.
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of or relating to sacred things or matters; religious; devotional; sacred.
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of or belonging to the church; ecclesiastical.
lords spiritual and temporal.
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of or relating to the mind or intellect.
noun
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spirituals
plural
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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.
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spirituals, affairs of the church.
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a spiritual thing or matter.
adjective
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relating to the spirit or soul and not to physical nature or matter; intangible
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of, relating to, or characteristic of sacred things, the Church, religion, etc
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standing in a relationship based on communication between the souls or minds of the persons involved
a spiritual father
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having a mind or emotions of a high and delicately refined quality
noun
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See Negro spiritual
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(often plural) the sphere of religious, spiritual, or ecclesiastical matters, or such matters in themselves
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the realm of spirits
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonspiritualnessnoun
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spiritualnessnoun
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antispiritualadjective
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nonspiritualadjective
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pseudospiritualadjective
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quasi-spiritualadjective
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superspiritualadjective
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unspiritualadjective
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antispirituallyadverb
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nonspirituallyadverb
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pseudospirituallyadverb
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quasi-spirituallyadverb
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spirituallyadverb
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superspirituallyadverb
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unspirituallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of spiritual
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Medieval Latin spīrituālis, from Latin spīritu(s) spirit + -ālis -al 1
Explanation
Spiritual things are concerned with sacred matters or religion, affecting the spirit or the soul. Spiritual entities like ghosts lack a material body or substance. Spiritual is the adjective form of the word spirit, which comes from the Latin word for "breath," and means the thing that animates life. Spiritual can be used to talk about anything that goes beyond mere physical existence, from ghost spirits to religious feelings. As a noun, spiritual describes a religious song originating in the African-American culture of the American South.
Vocabulary lists containing spiritual
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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"Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." and "I Have a Dream"
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Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech
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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:
Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, in India, has said he is praying for all those killed -- but also warned of wider issues.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
They include tourists who had come for trekking in the Himalayas, as well as Hindu pilgrims seeking spiritual peace at Tibet's sacred Mount Kailash.
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
It has labelled the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, a separatist.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
The treks flourished throughout the Middle Ages, faded, then rebounded from a niche spiritual journey to a global escape hatch; in 2025, the pilgrim office handed out 530,000 certificates of completion, or compostelas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
I am proud of these people not because of their color but because of their intelligence and their spiritual force and their beauty.
From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin
Orchestra for a prom that includes music by the Charleston-born composer Edmund Thornton Jenkins, one of the first people to introduce elements of jazz and spirituals into the classical repertoire.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026
And while Anglo-American lullabies are typically written in major keys, Gershwin chose a minor one—evoking the depth and dignity of such African-American spirituals as “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
His mother was an avid singer of spirituals and a next-door neighbor, Lucy Jackson, helped Jones learn to tap out boogie-woogie on the keyboard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2024
“Watch Night,” a multidisciplinary piece composed by Tamar-kali, co-conceived, directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, runs from Nov. 3-18 and melds spirituals, opera and poetry.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 14, 2023
All around, the spirits hummed their harmonious spirituals and murmured quietly to one another, their glow pulsing in time with the shimmer growing in the dark waters.
From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older
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.
