Incarnate Meaning
/ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjEmbodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified.
adjFlesh-colored; crimson.
Sentence Examples
You are the devil incarnate.
This woman is perfection incarnate.
He was incarnate of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the story, the evil spirit became ____ in a human body to walk the earth.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The old legend says that the spirit of the mountain once became ____ as a beautiful maiden.
Word Origin & History
First attested in 1395, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English incarnat(e) (“(of God or Christ) embodied in human form or flesh, incarnate; provided with new tissues, healed; (with devel, in curses) bloody”), borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin incarnātus, perfect passive participle of incarnor (“to be made flesh, become incarnate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- + Latin carō (“flesh”, carn- in its oblique stem) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). By surface analysis, in- + Latin carn- + -ate.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Here shalt thou sit incarnate."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
"Yards of Turkey silk incarnate."
— 1721, John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials; Relating Chiefly to Religion, and the Reformation of It, and the Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII. King Edward VI. and Queen Mary the First. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] John Wyat, […], →OCLC:
"For one thing, we virtually decided that these morbidities and the hellish Himalayan Mi-Go were one and the same order of incarnated nightmare."
— 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 2, in The Whisperer in Darkness:
"Not all of the soul can incarnate into a body; the part which is left above is the psyche."
— 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 218:
"SCP-3125 incarnated the following winter."
— 2019 August 26, qntm, “Unthreaded”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 161:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the story, the evil spirit became ____ in a human body to walk the earth.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The old legend says that the spirit of the mountain once became ____ as a beautiful maiden.