soul

soul

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of soul in English

English Online Dictionary. What means soul‎? What does soul mean?

English

Etymology 1

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 uncertain ultimate origin (see there for further information). Cognate with Scots saul, sowel (soul), North Frisian siel, sial (soul), Saterland Frisian Seele (soul), West Frisian siel (soul), Dutch ziel (soul), German Seele (soul) Scandinavian homonyms seem to have been borrowed from Old Saxon *siala. Modern Danish sjæl, Swedish själ, Norwegian sjel, Icelandic sál, Finnish sielu may have come from Old English sāwol.

Alternative forms

  • sowl (archaic)
  • soule (obsolete)

Pronunciation

  • enPR: sōl
    • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /səʊl/, [sɔʊɫ], [sɒʊɫ]
    • (General American) IPA(key): /soʊl/
    • (Canada) IPA(key): [so̞ːɫ]
    • (General Australian) IPA(key): /səʉl/, /sɐʉl/
    • (New Zealand) IPA(key): /sɐʉl/
  • Rhymes: -əʊl
  • Homophones: Seoul, sole, sowl

Noun

soul (countable and uncountable, plural souls)

  1. (religion, folklore) 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.
    • 1836, Hans Christian Andersen (translated into English by Mrs. H. B. Paull in 1872), The Little Mermaid
      "Among the daughters of the air," answered one of them. "A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny. But the daughters of the air, although they do not possess an immortal soul, can, by their good deeds, procure one for themselves.
  2. The spirit or essence of anything.
  3. Life, energy, vigor.
  4. (music) Soul music.
  5. A person, especially as one among many.
    • 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 life go, and some real decency.
  6. An individual life.
  7. (mathematics) A kind of submanifold involved in the soul theorem of Riemannian geometry.
Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:soul.

Synonyms
  • (spirit or essence of anything): crux, gist; See also Thesaurus:gist
  • (a person): See also Thesaurus:person
Derived terms

English terms starting with “soul”

Related terms
  • mind
  • spirit
Descendants
Translations

Verb

soul (third-person singular simple present souls, present participle souling, simple past and past participle souled)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To endow with a soul or mind.
    Synonyms: besoul, ensoul
  2. To beg on All Soul's Day.
    Coordinate term: trick-or-treat
Derived terms
  • besoul
  • dark night of the soul

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French souler (to satiate).

Verb

soul (third-person singular simple present souls, present participle souling, simple past and past participle souled)

  1. (obsolete) To feed or nourish.

References

  • “soul”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
  • soul in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
  • William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “soul”, in The Century Dictionary [], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

  • Luso-, luso-

Czech

Noun

soul m inan

  1. soul (music style)

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

  • “soul”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsou̯l/, [ˈs̠o̞u̯l]
  • Rhymes: -oul
  • Syllabification(key): soul
  • Hyphenation(key): soul

Noun

soul

  1. soul music

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

  • soul”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

Anagrams

  • Sulo, solu, sulo, ulos

Franco-Provençal

Adjective

soul (Piemontais)

  1. alternative form of sol (alone)

References

  • soul in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

French

Etymology 1

See saoul.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /su/
  • Homophones: sou, souls, sous

Adjective

soul (feminine soule, masculine plural souls, feminine plural soules)

  1. post-1990 spelling of soûl, itself an alternative form of saoul (drunk)
Derived terms
  • souler

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English soul.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sol/, /sul/

Noun

soul f (uncountable)

  1. soul, soul music

Further reading

  • “soul”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Hungarian

Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈsoːl] (phonetic respelling: szól)
  • Hyphenation: soul
  • Homophone: szól
  • Rhymes: -oːl

Noun

soul (usually uncountable, plural soulok)

  1. (music) soul music

Declension

Derived terms

  • soulzene

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsol/, (careful style) /ˈsowl/
  • Rhymes: -ol, (careful style) -owl
  • Hyphenation: (careful style) sóul

Noun

soul m or f (invariable)

  1. soul music

References

Anagrams

  • suol

Middle English

Noun

soul

  1. alternative form of soule

Old French

Adjective

soul m (oblique and nominative feminine singular soule)

  1. alternative form of sol

Declension

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English soul, from Middle English soule, sowle, saule, sawle, from Old English sāwol, from Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu, from Proto-Germanic *saiwalō.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsɔwl/
  • Rhymes: -ɔwl
  • Syllabification: soul

Noun

soul m inan

  1. soul music

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

  • soul in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • soul in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English soul.

Pronunciation

  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /sow/
    • Homophone: sou (when pronounced with the /w/)

Noun

soul m (uncountable)

  1. (music) soul music (a music genre combining gospel music, rhythm and blues and often jazz)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

Adjective

soul m or f or n (indeclinable)

  1. soul (music)

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English soul.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsoul/ [ˈsou̯l]
  • Rhymes: -oul
  • Syllabification: soul

Noun

soul m (uncountable)

  1. soul, soul music

Further reading

  • “soul”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

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