soul

CEFRB1

/səʊl/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The spiritual part of a person, believed to live after death.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Life, energy, vigor.

Examples

  • He believed his immortal soul was in peril.

  • Shine on my brilliant soul.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
4

Also pronounced

  • [so̞ːɫ]
  • [sɔʊɫ]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The spirit or essence of a person usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and personality, often believed to live on after the person's death.

  2. The spirit or essence of anything.

  3. Cultural consciousness and pride among people of African American heritage.

More examples

In context

  • There was not a bloody soul.

  • Fifty souls were lost when the ship sank.

  • 18 January 1915, D. H. Lawrence, letter to William Hopkin I want to gather together about twenty souls and sail away from this world of war and squalor and found a little colony where there shall be no money but a sort of communism as far as necessaries of li...

Synonyms

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

The monk believed that the blank lives on after the physical body dies.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English soule, sowle, saule, sawle, from Old English sāwol (“soul, life, spirit, being”), from Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu, from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō (“soul”), of an uncertain ultimate origin (see there for further information). Cognates Cognate with Scots saul, sowel (“soul”), Saterland Frisian Seele (“soul”), West Frisian siel (“soul”), Alemannic German Seel (“soul”), Central Franconian Siel (“soul”), Dutch ziel (“soul”), German Seele (“soul”), German Low German Seel (“soul”), Luxembourgish Séil (“soul, spirit”), Vilamovian zejł, zəjł, zyił (“soul”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌰 (saiwala, “soul”). Scandinavian homonyms seem to have been borrowed from Old Saxon sēola. Modern Danis...