soul

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You have no soul, and the soul is all that raises man above the beasts.

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Definitions (40)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (10)

  1. noun The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity.
  2. noun The spiritual nature of humans, regarded as immortal, separable from the body at death, and susceptible to happiness or misery in a future state.
  3. noun The disembodied spirit of a dead human.

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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples (50)

  • But what conceit can be imagined more base, than that man should strive to persuade himself even against the secret instinct, no doubt, of his own mind, that his soul is as the soul of a beast, mortal, and corruptible with the body? —  Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich'd Hooker, George Herbert, etc., Volume Two
  • It's a smell of the soul, and my soul is a lumberjack's sole. —  Sock
  • Thou hast not said that the soul is among those dead things which living things must spring from; thou hast not said that a living soul produces a dead soul, or that a dead soul produces a living one Plato. —  Imaginary Conversations and Poems A Selection
  • You have no soul, and the soul is all that raises man above the beasts. —  The Monster Men
  • The father paused a moment and then went on: "Your soul is your soul--not John Barclay's, my boy--not Jeanette Barclay's--but yours--yours, Neal, to blight or to cherish, as you will." —  A Certain Rich Man
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

spirit ·  heart ·  body ·  person ·  beauty ·  race ·  youth ·  mother

Used in the same contextWord Family

soul:   souls ·  Soul
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English sāwol.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English soule, sowle, saule, sawle, saull, from Anglo-Saxon sāwel, sāwol, sāwul, sāwl, sāul, sāwle, life, spirit, soul, = Old Saxon sēola, sēole, sīole, sēle = OFries. siele, sēle = Middle Dutch siele, Dutch ziel = MLG.sēle, Low German sele, sal = Old High German sēla, sēula, MHG.sēle, German seele = Icelandic sāla, later sāl = Swedish själ = Danish sjæl = Gothic (Moesogothic) saiwala, soul (transitive Greek ψυχή, etc.); origin unknown. The word has been compared with Greek αἰόλος quick-moving, changeful, and with sea (see sea); also with L. sæculum, age (life, vitality?) (see secle, secular).
  2. from Middle English sowlen; from soul, n.
  3. Also sool; from Middle English soule, sowle, souel, saule, saulee, food, = Danish sul, meat eaten with bread.
 

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