spiritual - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Proto-Indo-European *-tus

Middle English spiritual

English spiritual

From Middle English spiritual, spirituel, from Old French spirituel, from Late Latin spīrituālis, from Latin spīritus. By surface analysis, spirit +‎ -ual.

spiritual (comparative more spiritual, superlative most spiritual)

  1. Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul.
    Respect towards ancestors is an essential part of Thai spiritual practice.
  2. Of or pertaining to God or a place of worship; sacred, pure; (Christianity, specifically) inspired by the Holy Spirit.
    • 2019 June 18, Debra Jacobs, “I Didn’t Believe in God. Then I Had Kids.”, in Kveller‎[1], archived from the original on 19 March 2025:
      I suppose that’s not surprising, given the spiritual milieu in which I grew up. My mother gasped in sorrow at any news of a bombing in Israel and appropriately “oy veyed” when a Jew was accused of a crime, but she couldn’t tell you what the Shabbat blessing meant.
  3. Of or pertaining to spirits; supernatural.
    • 2014 March 3, Zoe Alderton, “‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom”, in Religions‎[2], volume 5, number 1, MDPI, →DOI, archived from the original on 20 December 2014, pages 219–257:
      Despite personal schisms and differences in spiritual experience, there is a very coherent theology of Snape shared between the wives. To examine this manifestation of religious fandom, I will first discuss the canon scepticism and anti-Rowling sentiment that helps to contextualise the wider belief in Snape as a character who extends beyond book and film.
  4. Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal.
    a spiritual substance or being
  5. Of or relating to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual.
  6. Not lay or temporal; relating to sacred things; ecclesiastical.
    the spiritual functions of the clergy; lords spiritual and temporal; a spiritual corporation

of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul

Christianity: controlled and inspired by the Holy Spirit

spiritual (plural spirituals)

  1. A Christian religious song, especially one in an African-American style, or a similar non-religious song.
  2. Any spiritual function, office, or affair.
    • a. 1880, James Russell Lowell, Dante:
      He assigns supremacy to the pope in spirituals, and to the emperor in temporals.

folk song

Internationalism

spiritual (comparative lebih spiritual, superlative paling spiritual)

  1. spiritual

Borrowed from French spirituel, Late Latin spīrituālis, from Latin spiritus. By surface analysis, spirit +‎ -ual.

spiritual m or n (feminine singular spirituală, masculine plural spirituali, feminine/neuter plural spirituale)

  1. spiritual (of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul)
    Synonym: sufletesc
  2. spiritual (of or pertaining to spirits; supernatural)