spirit
Pluralspirits
Pluralspirits
Formsspirits, spiriting, spirited
- 1A supernatural being, often without physical form, such as a ghost, fairy, or angel.
According to local legend, a restless spirit wanders the abandoned manor at night.
Folk traditions describe helpful spirits that guard the home and bring good fortune.
Similarghost, phantom, specter, apparition, wraith
- 2A person's temper, mood, or state of mind; one's mental or moral disposition.
His generous spirit showed in everything he did.
The travelers arrived tired but in good spirits.
UsageSay someone is in good spirits or in low spirits; her spirits rose. The singular means a settled nature: a generous spirit.
Similarmood, disposition, temper, nature, temperament
Note
The singular names a settled disposition or the temper of an age, as when the preacher Robert South says God "made a spirit of building succeed a spirit of pulling down."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Robert South was a preacher. en.wikipedia.org
- South wrote that God made a spirit of building succeed a spirit of pulling down. en.wiktionary.org
- 3The distinctive manner, style, or character of something.
The festival was organized in the spirit of community and celebration.
Her painting captures the spirit of the old town perfectly.
UsageUse in the spirit of for an attitude: in the spirit of forgiveness. Capture the spirit of means express something's distinctive character.
Similaressence, character, atmosphere, feel, ethos
Note
Older writers used it more freely. Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (1711) asks a perfect judge to read each work "with the same spirit that its author writ," meaning in the same frame of mind and manner.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Alexander Pope wrote An Essay on Criticism. rpo.library.utoronto.ca
- An Essay on Criticism was first published in 1711; the first-edition title page bears that year. en.wikisource.org
- The poem asks a perfect judge to read each work with the quoted spirit; the quotation is accurate. en.wikisource.org
- 4The soul of a person or other living creature, regarded as distinct from the body.
The funeral service offered comfort, assuring mourners that her spirit lived on.
Many faiths teach that the spirit survives the death of the body.
UsageOften set against the body or the flesh. After a death, people say the spirit lives on.
Note
The oldest idea in the word is breathing. The soul was imagined as the breath that animates a body, and the old "breath" meaning keeps that picture visible.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The soul was historically conceived as breath animating the body. en.wikipedia.org
- Spirit formerly had a literal breath meaning. en.wiktionary.org
- 5A strong alcoholic drink made by distillation, such as gin or whisky, often in the plural spirits; also, a volatile liquid such as alcohol or a solvent.
Behind the bar stood rows of spirits, from Mexican tequila to Scotch whisky, along with a few local gins.
By law, bourbon is a spirit that must be aged in new, charred oak barrels.
UsageFor drinks usually spirits: beer, wine and spirits. One kind is a spirit: gin is a spirit.
Note
Number does not separate drinks from solvents, since white spirit and mineral spirits are both cleaning liquids. On a menu, spirits means liquor, not ghosts or moods.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- White spirit and mineral spirits are cleaning liquids. en.wikipedia.org
- 6Energy, courage, and enthusiasm shown in what one does.
The horse galloped with a spirit that thrilled the onlookers.
The soldiers fought with such spirit that they held the line.
UsageUse with spirit to describe an action: they fought with great spirit. You can also show spirit or lack spirit.
Similarenergy, vigor, enthusiasm, courage, verve
Oppositeapathy, lethargy, listlessness, timidity
Note
Vital energy, and in older English often plural. Thomas Fuller's The Church-history of Britain (1655) has the dying Bede "summoning all his spirits together, like the last blaze of a candle going out." In the singular it covers both force and ardor and plain eagerness.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Thomas Fuller wrote The Church-history of Britain. en.wiktionary.org
- The book was first published in 1655. en.wikisource.org
- Fuller's narrative describes the dying Bede using the quoted words; these are narration, not words spoken by Bede. en.wiktionary.org
- 7The real intent or meaning behind something, as opposed to its literal wording.
Critics argued the new policy violated the spirit of the original agreement.
He honored the spirit of the contract even where the text was silent.
UsageUsually the spirit of a rule or agreement, often set against the letter: the letter and the spirit of the law.
Similarintent, intention, essence, purpose
Oppositeletter
Note
Half of a fixed opposition: the spirit against the letter. The letter is what a text literally says, and the spirit is what it was meant to achieve, so you can keep the letter of a rule while breaking its spirit. It attaches to documents, agreements and enterprises. Unlike the "manner" meaning, which describes how something is done, this sense points to purpose.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Spirit is conventionally contrasted with the letter: intended meaning versus literal wording. en.wiktionary.org
- Someone can follow a rule's literal wording while violating its underlying intention. en.wikipedia.org
- 8A lively or vivacious person; one who shows great energy or a distinctive turn of mind or temper.
She was a restless spirit, forever chasing the next big idea.
The poet was a wild spirit who lived entirely by his own rules.
UsageUsually with an adjective: a free spirit, a restless spirit, a kindred spirit.
Note
Here the word stands for a whole person, and it usually carries an adjective naming that person's ruling trait: a ruling spirit, a schismatic spirit. John Dryden's translation of Virgil (1697) speaks of "such spirits as he desired to please," meaning people of a particular cast of mind. Without an adjective, it tends to mean simply a lively, vivacious person.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- John Dryden's translation of Virgil was first published in 1697. openbook.lib.utah.edu
- Dryden wrote the quoted words in the prose discourse prefaced to his translation; 'spirits' refers to discerning readers. gutenberg.org
Less common meanings
- 9The collective pride and loyalty that bind the members of a team, school, community, or other group, along with their feeling of belonging.
After the flood, a strong community spirit kept neighbors checking on one another for months.
Alumni donations soared, a sign that the old college spirit was still alive decades after graduation.
UsageMostly in compounds: team spirit, school spirit, community spirit.
Similarcamaraderie, solidarity, pride, morale
- 10To carry someone or something off quickly, secretly, or mysteriously.
Smugglers spirit refugees across the border under cover of darkness.
Someone had spirited the painting out of the gallery before dawn.
UsageNearly always with a direction word: spirited away, spirited out of the building.
Note
The verb borrows the noun's air of the uncanny: to be spirited somewhere is to be moved as if by unseen hands. Nathaniel Parker Willis (1835) felt he had been "spirited into some castle of felicity."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The quotation is attributed to Nathaniel Parker Willis in Pencillings by the Way, first published in 1835. gutenberg.org
- Willis described feeling as if he had been 'spirited into some castle of felicity.' en.wiktionary.org
- 11To rouse someone to energy and enthusiasm; to encourage or inspirit, often followed by 'up.'
[H]e left behind many Officers and private Men, vvho novv ſpirit-up and aſſiſt thoſe obſtinate People to continue in their Rebellion.
1714, [Jonathan Swift], The Publick Spirit of the Whigs: Set forth in Their Generous Encouragement of the Author of the CrisisCivil dissensions often spirit the ambition of private men.
Similarhearten, rouse, encourage, cheer, buoy
Oppositedishearten, discourage, dispirit
Note
The verb of encouragement, now uncommon and most often paired with up. Jonathan Swift's The Publick Spirit of the Whigs (1714) hyphenates it, writing of officers who "spirit-up" the rebels. Keep it apart from the "carry off" verb: to spirit someone up raises their courage, while to spirit someone away removes them.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Jonathan Swift wrote The Publick Spirit of the Whigs, published in 1714. en.wiktionary.org
- The work uses the hyphenated form 'spirit-up' of officers encouraging people to continue their rebellion. en.wiktionary.org
- The encouragement sense is distinct from the sense meaning to carry someone off. en.wiktionary.org
- 12Breath, or air moved by breathing; hence, at times, life itself.
For else he sure had left not one aliue,>br>But all in his reuenge of spirite would depriue.
1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneBut the milde air with season moderate / Gently attempred, and disposd so well, / That still it breathed forth sweet spirit & holesome smell.
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneNote
The literal breath behind the word, now obsolete. Edmund Spenser still uses it in The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596). He writes of mild air that "breathed forth sweet spirit," and of a revenge that would deprive every enemy of spirit, meaning of life. When you meet it in older verse, read "breath" first and "life" second.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Spirit historically meant breath and, by extension, life. en.wiktionary.org
- Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, whose first three books appeared in 1590 and next three in 1596. en.wikisource.org
- Spenser describes mild air as breathing forth sweet spirit in Book II, Canto XII, stanza 51. gutenberg.org
- In Book V, Canto VII, stanza 36, depriving everyone of spirit means killing them. en.wikisource.org
- 13A rough breathing or aspirate, such as the sound of the letter h; also, the written mark indicating aspiration.
Be it a letter or spirit, we have great use of it.
1640, Ben Jonson, The English GrammarNote
An obsolete grammarian's term for the sound of h and for the sign that marks it. Ben Jonson's The English Grammar (1640) sidesteps the question of what h really is: "Be it a letter or spirit, we have great use of it." The name follows from the word's history, since an aspirate is a puff of breath and spirit once meant breath.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Spirit was a grammatical term for an aspirate and its written mark. en.wiktionary.org
- Ben Jonson wrote The English Grammar, whose first-edition title page bears the date 1640. hcmc.uvic.ca
- Jonson leaves h's classification open and writes the quoted words, with modernized capitalization and punctuation. hcmc.uvic.ca
- An aspirate involves a puff of breath. en.wiktionary.org
- The grammatical sense is consistent with the historical meaning breath. en.wiktionary.org
- 14In alchemy, any of the four substances sulfur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver, and arsenic (or, by some accounts, orpiment).
Note
A fixed set in alchemical writing: the four spirits were sulfur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver and arsenic, though some authorities substituted orpiment for arsenic. The grouping belongs to alchemy, now classed as a pseudoscience, and the term is obsolete. A reader meets it only in old texts, where "the spirits" means this group and not ghosts or alcohol.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Alchemical writing grouped sulfur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver and arsenic as four spirits, with orpiment given as an alternative. en.wikisource.org
- Alchemy is now classed as a pseudoscience. iep.utm.edu
- 15In Christian belief, the Holy Spirit, held to be the third person of the Trinity; usually written with the and a capital S.
The creed names the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as one God.
Several members of the congregation said they felt the Spirit moving during the evening service.
Note
Christian usage gives this sense both a capital and an article: the Spirit is the short form of the Holy Spirit, named in the creeds alongside the Father and the Son. Drop the capital and the article and the word slides back toward ghosts, fairies and angels. In worship it is spoken of as something active and present, as when a congregation says it felt the Spirit moving.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The Holy Spirit is named in Christian creeds alongside the Father and the Son. anglicancommunion.org
- 16Stannic chloride, a tin compound used in the dyeing and finishing of textiles.
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Practice
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Origin
It comes from Middle English "spirit," from Old French "espirit," from Latin "spīritus" meaning "breath" or "spirit," possibly ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to blow, breathe." It is related to words like "inspire," "respire," and "transpire," and is a doublet of "sprite" and "esprit."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- English spirit comes through Middle English spirit and Old French espirit from Latin spīritus, meaning breath or spirit, with a possible ultimate Proto-Indo-European origin meaning to blow or breathe. en.wiktionary.org
- Spirit is etymologically related to inspire, respire and transpire. en.wiktionary.org
- Spirit, sprite and esprit are doublets. en.wiktionary.org