spiritual

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Related to the vital principle or animating force within living things.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

spihrihchuhwuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈspɪɹɪtʃəwəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul.
Of or pertaining to God or a place of worship; sacred, pure; (Christianity, specifically) inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Of or pertaining to spirits; supernatural.
Of or relating to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual.
Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal.

noun

A kind of religious song originated by Blacks in the southern United States
A Christian religious song, especially one in an African-American style, or a similar non-religious song.
Any spiritual function, office, or affair.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul.

Used this way, spiritual is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: No strong connotation
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use spiritual

“Many people find peace through their spiritual practices.”adjective

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

spiritual worldspiritual leaderspiritual beingsspiritual lifespiritual powerspiritual growthspiritual valuesspiritual development

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

spirituallyadverbDerived adverb
In a spiritual manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

spiritual rebirthnounCompound term
A spiritual enlightenment causing a person to lead a new life.
spiritual worldnounCompound term
A belief that there is a realm controlled by a divine spirit.
spiritual beingnounCompound term
An incorporeal being believed to have powers to affect the course of human events.
spiritual bouquetnounCompound term
A card indicating that the sender will perform certain devotional acts on behalf of another.
spiritual domainnounCompound term
A belief that there is a realm controlled by a divine spirit.
spiritual jewelnounCompound term
A member of the Taoist Trinity.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul

immaterial

noun

Sense: kind of religious song originated by Blacks in the southern United States

negro spiritualRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.