Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having or evidencing a refined mind and wit.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, spiritual; see spiritual.]

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Examples

  • For this poet, a veritable child of Negro folk, gives expression to its spirit in need and language more akin to the ante-bellum 'spirituel' than any writer I know.

    Twenty-five years in the Black Belt, 1918

  • They are generally what the French call "spirituel," and often have rather desperate love-affairs which they keep very closely to themselves.

    Complete Project Gutenberg John Galsworthy Works John Galsworthy 1900

  • They are generally what the French call "spirituel," and often have rather desperate love-affairs which they keep very closely to themselves.

    Beyond John Galsworthy 1900

  • "spirituel" might mean; and in "The Princess" Mr. Tennyson has embodied the ideal of that nobler, wider, purer, yet equally fallacious, because equally unnatural, analogue, which we may meet too often up and down England now.

    Literary and General Lectures and Essays Charles Kingsley 1847

  • Pour bien juger de cela, il suffit d'écouter les choeurs du concert spirituel de Paris, & d'en comparer les dessus avec ceux de l'opéra.

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau: champion of among other things, mezzos! Celeste Winant 2008

  • Le 4eme rayon harmonie par le conflit, Beauté est une interface entre le spirituel et le matériel.

    Archive 2009-04-27 2009

  • [5] Jean-Joseph Surin, Guide spirituel, edited by Michel de Certeau (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1963), p. 60; Correspondance, edited by Michel de Certeau (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1966).

    The Quest of Michel de Certeau Davis, Natalie Zemon 2008

  • They have assemblies, a concert spirituel, and a comedy.

    Travels through France and Italy 2004

  • He was, at the same time spirituel and ignorant, sceptical and violently imbued with the prejudices of his class.

    The Honor of the Name �mile Gaboriau 2003

  • "It is he in the flesh; and looking anything but _spirituel_," said

    A Heart-Song of To-day Annie Gregg Savigny

Comments

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  • having or marked by a refined and especially sprightly or witty nature

    December 17, 2007

  • This word was chosen as Wordnik word of the day.

    November 11, 2009