spiritual

Connected with your soul, inner feelings, and sense of meaning in life.

• Meditation helps her spiritual wellbeing.
• The journey brought him a sense of spiritual peace.
• They value spiritual growth more than money.

Opposites: material, physical

Common phrases: spiritual growth, spiritual needs, spiritual journey, spiritual wellbeing

Connected with God, religious belief, or worship.

• Prayer is part of her spiritual life.
• They asked their spiritual leader for advice.
• He found spiritual strength in his faith.

Similar words: religious, sacred

Opposites: secular

Common phrases: spiritual leader, spiritual guidance, spiritual life, spiritual experience

Connected with spirits or powers beyond the ordinary physical world.

• They believe in spiritual forces.
• She claimed to sense a spiritual presence in the room.
• The story describes contact with the spiritual world.

Similar words: supernatural, otherworldly

Common phrases: spiritual world, spiritual realm, spiritual forces, spiritual presence

Existing as a spirit, without a physical body or material form.

• The angel is a spiritual being.
• They described the soul as purely spiritual.
• In this account, spiritual beings have no physical bodies.

Similar words: immaterial, incorporeal, bodiless

Opposites: material, physical

Common phrases: spiritual being, spiritual substance, purely spiritual

Connected with the mind and its ability to think and understand.

• The essay examines our spiritual faculties.
• He called education a means of spiritual development.
• The writer contrasted physical strength with spiritual powers of thought.

Similar words: mental, intellectual

Opposites: physical

Common phrases: spiritual faculties, spiritual development, spiritual powers

Connected with church duties or authority, rather than ordinary government or worldly matters.

• The bishop holds spiritual authority.
• Priests have spiritual duties within the church.
• The document separates spiritual matters from the business of government.

Similar words: ecclesiastical, church

Opposites: temporal, secular

Common phrases: spiritual authority, spiritual duties, lords spiritual

A traditional Christian song, especially from the Black American musical tradition.

• The choir sang a spiritual.
• Her concert included several traditional spirituals.
• This spiritual expresses hope for freedom.

Common phrases: traditional spiritual, sing a spiritual, old spiritual

A religious duty, position, or matter, usually discussed together with other church affairs.

• The council discussed the church's spirituals.
• The bishop managed spirituals while others handled money.
• The old document lists spirituals among the duties of the office.

Similar words: religious affair

Common phrases: the spirituals, church spirituals