spirituality
/ˌspɪɹ.ə.t͡ʃuˈæl.ə.tɪ/
spirituality means the quality or state of being spiritual. It carries an Arena rating of 1397, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, spirituality ranks #2,265 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #3,738 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #4,054 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #6,244 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
spirituality is pronounced /ˌspɪɹ.ə.t͡ʃuˈæl.ə.tɪ/.
Why “spirituality” is a great word
The quality or state of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. From Medieval Latin spīrituālitās, from Latin spīrituālis ("spiritual") + -itās ("-ity, forming abstract nouns"), first recorded in English 1375–1425. Unlike materialism, which stakes all reality on the tangible and the owned, or religiosity, which often connotes the strictures of doctrine and ritual, spirituality is the interior turn toward the intangible. It is the silence sought in a crowded room, the meaning drawn from a shaft of light on a dusty floor, the quiet acknowledgment of a vastness within—the personal, persistent suspicion that the self is larger than its circumstances.
Etymology
From Middle French spiritualité, from Late Latin spīrituālitās.
noun
- The quality or state of being spiritual.e.g.“, "The Ways of Wisdom are Ways of Pleasantness"
a pleasure made for the soul, suitable to its spirituality”
- Concern for that which is unseen and intangible, as opposed to physical or mundane.e.g.“African Indigenous Spirituality”
- Appreciation for religious values.
- That which belongs to the church, or to a person as an ecclesiastic, or to religion, as distinct from temporalities.e.g.“During the vacancy of a see, the archbishop is guardian of the spiritualities thereof.” — 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
- An ecclesiastical body; the whole body of the clergy, as distinct from, or opposed to, the temporality.e.g.“Five entire subsidies were granted to the king by the spirituality.” — 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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