incorporeal

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in·cor·po·re·al

(ĭn′kôr-pôr′ē-əl)

adj.

1. Lacking material form or substance.

2. Law Of or relating to property or an asset that cannot be physically possessed, as a right or patent.

[Middle English incorporealle, from Latin incorporeus : in-, not; see in-¹ + corporeus, consisting of a body; see corporeal.]

in′cor·po′re·al′i·ty (-ăl′ĭ-tē) n.

in′cor·po′re·al·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

incorporeal

(ˌɪnkɔːˈpɔːrɪəl)

adj

1. without material form, body, or substance

2. (Ecclesiastical Terms) spiritual or metaphysical

3. (Law) law having no material existence but existing by reason of its annexation of something material, such as an easement, touchline, copyright, etc: an incorporeal hereditament.

ˌincorˈporeally adv

incorporeity, ˌincorporeˈality n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

in•cor•po•re•al

(ˌɪn kɔrˈpɔr i əl, -ˈpoʊr-)

adj.

1. not corporeal or material; insubstantial.

2. having no material value but giving evidence of value, as a franchise.

[1525–35; < Latin incorpore(us) + -al¹. See in-³, corporeal]

in`cor•po`re•al′i•ty, n.

in`cor•po′re•al•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.

incorporeal - without material form or substance; "an incorporeal spirit"

immaterial

unbodied - having no body

corporeal, material - having material or physical form or substance; "that which is created is of necessity corporeal and visible and tangible" - Benjamin Jowett

incorporeal

adjective

Having no body, form, or substance:

bodiless, discarnate, disembodied, immaterial, insubstantial, metaphysical, nonphysical, spiritual, unbodied, uncorporal, unsubstantial.

Translations

incorporeal

[ˌɪnkɔːpɔːrɪəl] ADJ (liter) → incorpóreo

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

incorporeal

adj → nicht körperlich, körperlos

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

References in classic literature ?

In that hour she repeated what the merciful eyes of solitude have looked on for ages in the spiritual struggles of man-- she besought hardness and coldness and aching weariness to bring her relief from the mysterious incorporeal might of her anguish: she lay on the bare floor and let the night grow cold around her; while her grand woman's frame was shaken by sobs as if she had been a despairing child.

View in context

Athelny spoke of the mystical writers of Spain, of Teresa de Avila, San Juan de la Cruz, Fray Luis de Leon; in all of them was that passion for the unseen which Philip felt in the pictures of El Greco: they seemed to have the power to touch the incorporeal and see the invisible.

View in context

Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms Reduc'd thir shapes immense, and were at large, Though without number still amidst the Hall Of that infernal Court.

View in context

Or, tell me, Doctor, do you have no apprehension in an earthquake that that incorporeal body of yours will be hit by an immaterial brick?"

View in context

Some of them struck me as singularly odd compounds of ardour and flatness; commencing in strong feeling, and concluding in the affected, wordy style that a schoolboy might use to a fancied, incorporeal sweetheart.

View in context

As per the act, Benami property has been defined as: moveable or immovable, tangible or intangible, corporeal or incorporeal, and right or interest.

FBR asks banks to collect details of Benami accounts

Senior, we are told that there is spiritual food and spiritual drink, as in food and drink in the incorporeal tense.

Our Apostolic Lady's Girls and Kpoo Keke, Keke Kpoo...Oh!

The soul as defined by Wikipedia is the 'incorporeal essence of a living being.

The cliff faced in depression

The law defined benami property as assets of any kind, whether movable or immovable, tangible or intangible, corporeal or incorporeal and includes any right or interest or legal documents or instruments evidencing title to or interest in the property and where the property is capable of conversion into some other form, then the property in the converted form and also includes the proceeds from the property which are the subject matter of a benami transaction or arrangement.

Commission should have a wider scope

Besides dismissing classical morality's role in politics, Hobbes objects even more strongly to Aristotle's claim that there exist "abstract essences" apart from bodies, thereby leaving "open a door through which his followers, led already by the natural human propensity to believe in incorporeal spirits, could travel in their search for philosophic support for their religious beliefs." Philosophy famously be came a handmaid to theology--a "vain" nonsense to Hobbes, puffed up by "fabulous traditions"--which "intensified political conflict" and "rendered philosophy servile and corrupt." He blames Aristotle for not inoculating his teaching against appropriation and exploitation by medieval Scholastics like Thomas Aquinas.

THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY

Paul, of course, is on the cold case--to the extent that a ghostly gumshoe can be--but Alison is still determined not to do the incorporeal investigator's legwork.

Bones Behind the Wheel

An incorporeal young boy was once seen standing by the fireplace in the dinning room, while other strange shadows have been reported drifting down various corridors.