spiritual
UK /ˈspɪɹɪtʃʊəl/ · US /ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/ adjective, noun
Forms spirituals spirituall spirytual spirytuall spyritual spyrituall spyrytual spyrytuall sperichil
- adjective Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul. “Respect towards ancestors is an essential part of Thai spiritual practice.”
- adjective Of or pertaining to God or a place of worship; sacred, pure; (Christianity, specifically) inspired by the Holy Spirit.
- adjective Of or pertaining to spirits; supernatural.
- adjective Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal. “a spiritual substance or being”
- adjective Of or relating to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual.
- adjective Not lay or temporal; relating to sacred things; ecclesiastical. “the spiritual functions of the clergy; lords spiritual and temporal; a spiritual corporation”
- noun A Christian religious song, especially one in an African-American style, or a similar non-religious song.
- noun Any spiritual function, office, or affair.
- noun (Christianity, historical) A member of a branch of the Franciscan order that advocated simple dress and renounced the owning of property.
Synonyms
folk song Negro spiritual religious unearthly apparitional ghostlike ghostly phantasmal spectral
Etymology
From Middle English spiritual, spirituel, from Old French spirituel, from Late Latin spīrituālis, from Latin spīritus. By surface analysis, spirit + -ual.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal; as, a spiritual substance or being.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual.
- noun A spiritual function, office, or affair. See Spirituality, 2.
Etymology [L. spiritualis: cf. F. spirituel. See Spirit.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “spiritual”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details