spiritual Hear it!

spiritual Definition

spir·it·ual (spir′i c̸ho̵̅o̅ əl)

adjective

  1. of the spirit or the soul as distinguished from the body or material matters
  2. of, from, or concerned with the intellect; intellectual
  3. of or consisting of spirit; not corporeal
  4. characterized by the ascendancy of the spirit; showing much refinement of thought and feeling
  5. of religion or the church; sacred, devotional, or ecclesiastical; not lay or temporal
  6. spiritualistic or supernatural

Etymology: ME spirituel < OFr < LL(Ec) spiritualis < L, of breathing or air

noun

  1. ☆ any of a type of American folk hymn; specif., any of such songs originating among S U.S. blacks in the 18th and 19th cent. combining African and European musical elements
  2. religious or church matters

spiritual Related Forms
spir′·itu·ally adverb spir′·itu·al·ness noun
spiritual Synonyms

spiritual

modif.

refined, pure, holy; see religious 1.

spiritual Usage Examples

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • understand: How can a spiritually dead person understand anything spiritual?

Used with adjective complement

  • provide: Whether used by crusader, pilgrim or cleric, these maps provided spiritual rather than geographical guidance.
  • say: A lot of them are more - I wouldn't say spiritual, but they relate more to the imagination and the individual.
  • develop: To develop spiritual, moral, personal and social achievements.
  • get: Sarah Barrell gets spiritual in upstate New York Published: 16 April 2005 A steaming figure stands in the sauna doorway.

Modifies a noun

  • dimension: Is there a spiritual dimension to human life which we need to acknowledge?
  • realm: The reality of spiritual realms was being replaced by earthly desires to enhance individual power or ego.
  • blessing: As we shall see these were not only spiritual blessings but also material blessings.
  • awakening: Following this, Dr. Hoover and four others met every day at five o'clock to pray for spiritual awakening.
  • journey: This person must be someone who is further along o n the spiritual journey.
  • gift: Godly love is the highest of the spiritual gifts.

Modifying Another Word

  • purely: The glory of God, which was once thought to fill the universe, is now regarded as a purely spiritual thing.
  • inward: Both in his outward conduct and in his inward spiritual desires he was ruled by God's Word.
  • deeply: This is, in my opinion, the very heart of New Age music; soft, melodic, deeply spiritual, exquisitely beautiful.
  • profoundly: Many of the astronauts have found that view a profoundly spiritual experience.
  • truly: Soul music is true to its name: the best examples of the genre deliver a truly spiritual experience.
  • almost: It's a fantastically bright place with a huge window down one side, creating a tranquil and almost spiritual atmosphere.

Preposition: in

  • nature: They believe heaven and hell to be spiritual in nature.
spiritual Quotes

It comes to this: of whatever sort it is, it must be'lit with piercing glances into the life of things'; it must acknowledge the spiritual forces which have made it.

—Moore, Marianne Craig

I have known no man of genius who had not to pay, in some affliction or defect either physical or spiritual, for what the gods had given him.

—Beerbohm, Sir (Henry) Max(imilian)

Force is the same throughout and the whole is in every part of it. Force is a spiritual power, an invisible energy which isimparted by violence from without toall bodies out of their natural balance.

—Leonardo daVinci

Anyone happy in this age and place Is daft or corrupt. Better to abdicate From a material and spiritual terrain Fit only for barbarians.

—Fuller, Roy Broadbent

Canada isnot reallya placewhereyouare encouragedto have large spiritual adventures.

—Davies, Robertson

Man doth seek a triple perfection: first a sensual, consisting in those things which very life itself requireth either as necessary supplements, or as beauties and ornaments thereof; then an intellectual, consisting in those things which none underneath man is either capable of or acquainted with; lastly a spiritual and divine, consisting in those things whereunto we tend by supernatural means here, but cannot here attain unto them.

—Hooker, Richard

Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I'll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities.

—Bukowski, Charles

La Poe¤  sie est l'expression, par le langage humain ramene¤  e a'   son rythme essentiel, du sens myste¤  rieux des aspects de l'existence; elle doue ainsi d'authenticite¤ notre se¤  jour et constitue la seule ta"  che spirituelle. Poetry is an expression, through human language restored to its essential rhythm, of the mysteriousness of existence; it endows our life with authenticity and constitutes our only spiritual task.

—Mallarme¤  , Ste¤  phane

Close your bodily eye, so that you may see your picture first with the spiritual eye. Then bring to the light of day that which you have seen in the darkness so that it may react on others from the outside inwards.

—Friedrich, Caspar David

   The instinct of mankind warns it against accepting at their face value spiritual demands that cannot satisfy themselves by practical achievements. The road along which the organized workers, like any other class, must climb to power starts from the provision of a more effective economic service than their masters, as their grip upon industry becomes increasingly vacillating and uncertain, are able to supply.

—Tawney, R(ichard) H(enry)

   There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joyand that it is this which will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.

—Walker, Alice Malsenior