spiritual

See also: Spiritual and spirituál

English

Alternative forms

• spirituall, spirytual, spirytuall, spyritual, spyrituall, spyrytual, spyrytuall (all obsolete)
• (African-American Christian religious song): sperichil (rare, archaic)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈspɪɹɪtʃʊəl/, /ˈspɪɹɪtjʊəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/, /ˈspɪɹɪ̈t͡ʃul̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

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.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Galatians 6:1:

     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.

   • 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

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 15:44:

     It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

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

Derived terms

• antispiritual
• antispiritualism
• antispirituality
• aspiritual
• aspirituality
• cyberspiritual
• ecospiritual
• interspiritual
• nonspiritual
• panspiritual
• pseudospiritual
• psychospiritual
• religiospiritual
• spiritual awakening
• spiritual bypass
• spiritual bypassing
• spiritual desertion
• spiritual healing
• spiritual incest
• spiritualisation
• spiritualise
• Spiritualism
• spiritualism
• spiritualist
• spiritualistic
• spirituality
• spiritualization
• spiritualize
• spiritual jazz
• spiritual leader
• spiritually
• spiritual midden
• spiritual naturalism
• spiritual naturalist
• spiritualness
• spiritual plane
• spiritual sequel
• spiritual violence
• spiritual warfare
• spiritual wifery
• spiritual world
• superspiritual
• theospiritual
• ultraspiritual
• unspiritual

Translations

of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul

• Afrikaans: geestelik, spiritueel
• Arabic: رُوحَانِيّ (rūḥāniyy), رُوحِيّ (rūḥiyy)
• Armenian: հոգեւոր (hy) (hogewor)
• Asturian: espiritual
• Azerbaijani: ruhi, ruhani, mənəvi (az)
• Belarusian: духо́ўны (duxówny)
• Bengali: আধ্যাত্মিক (bn) (addhattik)
• Bulgarian: духо́вен (bg) (duhóven)
• Catalan: espiritual (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 精神 (zh) (jīngshén)

• Czech: duchovní (cs)
• Danish: åndelig
• Dutch: geestelijk (nl), spiritueel (nl)
• Esperanto: spirita, anima
• Estonian: vaimne
• Finnish: hengellinen (fi) (religious); henkinen (fi) (other)
• French: spirituel (fr)
• Galician: espiritual (gl)
• German: geistig (de)
• Gothic: 𐌰𐌷𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (ahmeins)
• Greek: πνευματικός (el) (pnevmatikós)

  Ancient Greek: πνευματικός (pneumatikós)

• Hebrew: רוּחָנִי (rukhaní)
• Hindi: आध्यात्मिक (hi) (ādhyātmik)
• Hungarian: spirituális (hu), lelki (hu)
• Irish: spioradálta

  Old Irish: spirutálta

• Italian: spirituale (it)
• Japanese: 精神的 (ja) (せいしんてき, seishinteki)
• Kazakh: рухани (ruxani)
• Korean: 정신적 (ko) (jeongsinjeok), 정신의 (ko) (jeongsinui)
• Kyrgyz: руханий (ruhaniy)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: духовен (duhoven)
• Malagasy: ara-panahy
• Malayalam: ആത്മീയ (ml) (ātmīya)
• Manx: spyrrydoil
• Māori: whakawairua
• Middle English: gostly
• Norwegian: åndelig, spirituell (no)
• Occitan: espirital (oc)
• Old East Slavic: духовьнꙑи (duxovĭnyi)
• Old English: gāstlīċ
• Persian: روحی (fa) (ruhi), معنوی (fa) (ma'navi), روحانی (fa) (rowhâni)
• Polish: duchowy (pl)
• Portuguese: espiritual (pt)
• Romanian: sufletesc (ro), spiritual (ro)
• Russian: духо́вный (ru) (duxóvnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ду̀хо̄внӣ

  Latin: dùhōvnī (sh)

• Slovak: duchovný
• Slovene: duhoven
• Sorbian:

  Upper Sorbian: duchowny

• Spanish: espiritual (es)
• Swedish: andlig (sv)
• Tagalog: makadiwa
• Tajik: рӯҳӣ (rühi), маънавӣ (ma'navi)
• Telugu: ఆధ్యాత్మిక (te) (ādhyātmika)
• Turkish: spiritüel (tr), tinsel (tr), ruhsal (tr), manevi (tr), ruhani (tr)
• Ukrainian: духо́вний (uk) (duxóvnyj)
• Uzbek: ruhiy (uz), maʼnaviy (uz)
• Welsh: ysbrydol (cy)
• Yiddish: רוחיש (rukhish), גײַסטיק (gaystik)

of or pertaining to God or a place of worship; sacred

• Afrikaans: geestelik
• Bulgarian: свят (bg) (svjat)
• Finnish: hengellinen (fi), pyhä (fi)
• Middle English: gostly
• Turkish: manevi (tr), ruhani (tr)

of or pertaining to spirits; supernatural

• Afrikaans: spiritueel
• Bulgarian: свръхестествен (bg) (svrǎhestestven)
• Finnish: henkimaailman (fi), yliluonnollinen (fi)
• Malayalam: ആത്മീയ (ml) (ātmīya)
• Romanian: spiritual (ro)
• Turkish: manevi (tr)

consisting of spirit; not material

• Afrikaans: spiritueel
• Bulgarian: духовен (bg) (duhoven)
• Finnish: henki- (fi)
• Malayalam: അലൗകിക (ml) (alaukika)
• Middle English: gostly
• Turkish: manevi (tr), tinsel (tr)

of or relating to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind

• Afrikaans: spiritueel
• Bulgarian: одухотворен (bg) (oduhotvoren)
• Estonian: vaimne
• Finnish: henkinen (fi), älyllinen (fi)

Christianity: controlled and inspired by the Holy Spirit

• Finnish: Pyhän Hengen johdattama

not lay or temporal; relating to sacred things

• Bulgarian: свят (bg) (svjat)
• Finnish: hengellinen (fi)
• Māori: whakawairua
• Middle English: gostly

Noun

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.

Synonyms

• folk song

Derived terms

• arranged spiritual
• concert spiritual
• negro spiritual
• Negro spiritual

Translations

folk song

• Bulgarian: религиозна песен f (religiozna pesen)
• Czech: spirituál m
• Finnish: spirituaali (fi)
• Hungarian: spirituálé (hu)
• Italian: spiritual (it) m
• Spanish: espiritual (es) m

References

• “spiritual”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• spiritual in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “spiritual”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Indonesian

Etymology

Internationalism

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /spiriˈtual/ [spi.riˈt̪u.al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: spi‧ri‧tu‧al

Adjective

spiritual (comparative lebih spiritual, superlative paling spiritual)

1. spiritual

Alternative forms

• spirituil

Related terms

• spirit
• spiritis
• spiritisme
• spiritus

Further reading

• “spiritual”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Romanian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spi.ri.tuˈal/
• Hyphenation: spi‧ri‧tu‧al

Adjective

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)

Declension

Declension of spiritual

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	spiritual		spirituală		spirituali	spirituale
	definite	spiritualul		spirituala		spiritualii	spiritualele
genitive- dative	indefinite	spiritual		spirituale		spirituali	spirituale
	definite	spiritualului		spiritualei		spiritualilor	spiritualelor

Related terms

• spiritualism
• spiritualitate