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:
She has hailed the holistic benefits of nature, which she described in almost spiritual terms, in a series of videos showing the changing seasons.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
If you’re a 30 Rock fan looking for a similar show to enjoy, check out this ranked list of 14 spiritual successors that my colleagues and I put together.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
Father Louis Cameli, a priest at Holy Name Cathedral, said the news was "not just a medical event" but a "spiritual summons" to trust God.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
“I really like my quiet life,” he said at the time while discussing his passion for painting and his spiritual life.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Mediums began to look for ways to speed up what the press still called “the spiritual telegraph.”
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Then you have to retreat with your mind into the music, and allow the music to express a kind of deep belief, like what the Negro spirituals express.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
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
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
A choir director was terrified of teaching the history behind spirituals sung by enslaved people.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
In his church recitals he broke with tradition and featured classical songs by European composers along with traditional African American spirituals.
From "The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights" by Russell Freedman
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
