spiritual means of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul. It carries an Arena rating of 1479, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, spiritual ranks #304 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,865 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,980 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #4,497 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words.
spiritual is pronounced /ˈspɪɹɪtʃʊəl/.
Why “spiritual” is a great word
Relating to the human spirit or soul, or to sacred, non-material realities. From Anglo-Norman and Old French spirituel, from Latin spiritualis ("of breathing, of spirit"), from spiritus ("breath, spirit"). Unlike "religious," which binds one to creed and institution, or "physical," which anchors us in the tangible world, spiritual breathes in the space between, naming the private weather of the inner self. It is the silence in an empty chapel felt by an atheist, the specific ache evoked by a certain slant of autumn light, the involuntary quiet that falls upon a room where someone has just died—a recognition of the vast interior country that maps of the material world cannot chart.
Etymology
From Middle English spiritual, spirituel, from Old French spirituel, from Late Latin spīrituālis, from Latin spīritus. By surface analysis, spirit + -ual.
adj
- Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul.e.g.“Respect towards ancestors is an essential part of Thai spiritual practice.”
- Of or pertaining to God or a place of worship; sacred, pure; (Christianity, specifically) inspired by the Holy Spirit.e.g.“Brethren, if a man bee ouertaken in a fault: yee which are spirituall, restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse, considering thy selfe least thou also be tempted.” — 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Galatians 6:1:
- Of or pertaining to spirits; supernatural.
- Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal.e.g.“a spiritual substance or being”
- Of or relating to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual.
- Not lay or temporal; relating to sacred things; ecclesiastical.e.g.“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.
- Any spiritual function, office, or affair.e.g.“He assigns supremacy to the pope in spirituals, and to the emperor in temporals.” — a. 1880, James Russell Lowell, Dante:
- A member of a branch of the Franciscan order that advocated simple dress and renounced the owning of property.e.g.“But in the years that followed, the cause of the Spirituals became championed by far more substantial figures within the church.” — 2007, Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon, Blue Bridge, published 2008, page 56:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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