Corporeal

Practice This Word

Relating to the physical body; tangible or material rather than spiritual or abstract.

adjective

Corporeal

Relating to the physical body; tangible or material rather than spiritual or abstract.

adjective

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Imagine This

Imagine a marble statue of a person you can touch, weigh, and see with real texture; its presence is corporeal, not ghostly or imagined.

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Sounds Like

KOR-pə-REE-əl

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Looks Like

corporal (relating to the body; similar spelling and root)

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Remember This

The root corp- means body. Related words include corpse (a dead body), corporation (a body of people), and corpulent (having a large body). Corporeal is often contrasted with incorporeal (without a physical body or form).

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Other Forms

corporealitynoun

corporealizeverb

corporeallyadverb

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Connect With

incorporeal, bodily, physical, tangible, somatic

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Note

Do not confuse with corporate (relating to a corporation or company). Also note that corporal (with an a) can refer to bodily matters, but in some contexts it is a military rank; use context to guide meaning.

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Study Deeper

Examples

The archaeologist described the bones as corporeal evidence of the ancient civilization.
In the novel, ghosts exist in incorporeal form, while living characters crave corporeal comforts.

Synonyms

bodilyphysicaltangiblematerialsomatic

Antonyms

incorporealspiritualimmaterial

Etymology

From Latin corporeus 'of the body', from corpus 'body'; the suffix -eal forms adjectives meaning 'relating to'.

Mnemonic

CORP- = body. Picture a concrete, real body at the core (the 'corp' of the matter)—corporeal means 'body-like' or 'bodily'.

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