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:
It is intended to offer cancer patients a wider sense of recovery, beyond physical treatment, and addressing a sense of emotional, spiritual and social wellbeing.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
As the personal trainers, spiritual leaders and motivational speakers say, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
"The 1851 memoir, by contrast, was a spiritual redemption story, with Byfield tracing his progress from rebellious sinner to devout and repentant Christian."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
He isn’t alone in believing that advances in artificial intelligence will pique interest in the spiritual realm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
On the other hand, the toddler’s illness also threw an obstacle in Mrs. Kedzie’s path to spiritual glory, riches, or both.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Field hollers, blues, ballads, spirituals, game songs, cowboy songs: these are among folk music’s many familiar forms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Hip-hop is their common language, but Robinson is also fluent in blues and spirituals while Quijada speaks forcefully through Mexican folk rhythms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 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
Celebrate Juneteenth with this concert that traces the evolution of African American music from traditional spirituals to more contemporary genres like gospel, jazz, R&B and hip-hop.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 15, 2023
I have no praise anthems, nor old Negro spirituals.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
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.
