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Dictionary / soul

soul

/səʊl/ (Received-Pronunciation)[sɔʊɫ] (Received-Pronunciation)[sɒʊɫ] (Received-Pronunciation)
  • noun
  • adjective
  • verb
  • from Old English

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.

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1 All current definitions

Every sense of “soul” in current use, as recorded by Wiktionary. Older and obsolete senses are kept separately.

noun · etymology 1

  1. countableuncountableThe 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.

    Flowey: See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!2015 September 15, Toby Fox, Undertale, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X:

  2. countableuncountableThe spirit or essence of anything.

    From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

  3. countableuncountableLife, energy, vigor.
  4. countableuncountableCultural consciousness and pride among people of African American heritage.
  5. countableuncountableA strong positive feeling of intense sensitivity and emotional fervor conveyed especially by African American performers.
  6. countableuncountableSoul music.
  7. countableuncountableA person, especially as one among many.

    Ordo Malleus Inquisitor: I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world, and consign a million souls to oblivion.2011, Relic Entertainment, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution, scene: Exterminatus declared on Typhon Primaris:

  8. countableuncountableAn individual life.

    Fifty souls were lost when the ship sank.

  9. countableuncountableA kind of submanifold involved in the soul theorem of Riemannian geometry.
Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

adjective · etymology 1

  1. not comparableCharacteristic of or pertaining to African American culture.

    soul music

Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

verb · etymology 1

  1. To beg on All Soul's Day.

    All Souls' Day was celebrated by souling, a custom going back to pre-Reformation days: soul cakers and mummers toured the village begging for a soul cake — a plain, round, flat cake seasoned with spices.1981, Geoffrey Scard, Squire and tenant: life in rural Cheshire, 1760-1900, page 93:

Older & obsolete senses (1)
  1. obsoletetransitiveTo endow with a soul or mind.
Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

verb · etymology 2

No current senses for this part of speech — see older senses.

Older & obsolete senses (1)
  1. obsoleteTo feed or nourish.
Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
Cross-check: WordNet senses (5)
  1. nounthe immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life — also: psyche
  2. nouna human being — also: person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal
  3. noundeep feeling or emotion — also: soulfulness
  4. nounthe human embodiment of something
  5. nouna secular form of gospel that was a major Black musical genre in the 1960s and 1970s
Princeton WordNet 3.0 — WordNet License

Synonyms: crux, gist

Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

2 History of the word

The etymology, the path the word travelled, and the words built from it.

Etymology 1 (noun, adjective, verb)

The word’s journey, newest to oldest:

  1. English (today)soul
  2. Middle Englishsoule
  3. Old Englishsāwol “soul, life, spirit, being”
  4. Proto-West Germanic*saiwalu
  5. Proto-Germanic*saiwalō “soul”

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 Danish sjæl (“soul”), Icelandic sál (“soul”), Norwegian Bokmål sjel (“soul”), Norwegian Nynorsk sjel, sål (“soul”), Swedish själ (“soul”), Finnish sielu (“soul”) may have come from Old English sāwol.

Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

Etymology 2 (verb)

The word’s journey, newest to oldest:

  1. English (today)soul
  2. Frenchsouler “to satiate”

Borrowed from French souler (“to satiate”).

Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

Derivatives — words built from “soul”

cybersouldesoulensoulinsoulneo-soulobject-souloversoulsocasoulachesoul-alesoul-bluessoulboysoul-cakesoulcraftsoul-crushingsoul-crushinglysoul-destroyingsouledsoulfulsoulfullysoulfulnesssoulicalsoulishsoullesssoullikesoul-lovesoulmarkSoulmasssoulmatesoulrendingSoulsbornesoulscapesoulscotsoul-searchersoul-searchingsoul-searchsoul-shakingsoulsickSoulslikesoulster

Phrases & compounds

after one's own soulalbum-oriented soulAll Souls' Dayanimal soulbare one's soulbless my soulblue-eyed soulbody and soulbrevity is the soul of witbrown-eyed soulcut away one's souldark night of the souldead souldeep soulGod rest her soulGod rest his soulGod rest their soulheart and soulhip hop soulkeep body and soul together

Related terms

mindspirit
Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

Want to go deeper? See also “soul” on Etymonline ↗

3 Original language

Where “soul” came from before it was English.

Etymology 1 (noun, adjective, verb)

Native English word, from
Old English
Old English sāwol “soul, life, spirit, being”
Deepest root (reconstructed)
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic *saiwalō “soul”

The source marks part of this history as uncertain (it uses words like “perhaps” or “possibly”). Read the full etymology above before treating any single origin as certain.

Etymology 2 (verb)

Came into English from
French
French souler “to satiate”
Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

4 Original meaning

What the word meant at the oldest point the record reaches.

Reconstructed Proto-Germanic root
“soul”
Proto-Germanic *saiwalō — rebuilt by linguists from its descendants; never written down.
Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

Historical meaning — Webster’s 1913

A historical record, labelled as such: some of these senses are dated or have since shifted.

soul a.

  1. Sole.

soul v. i. [F. so to satiate. See Soil to feed.]

  1. To afford suitable sustenance.

soul n. [OE. soule, saule, AS. s, s; akin to OFries. s, OS. s, D. ziel, G. seele, OHG. s, s, Icel. s, Sw. sj, Dan. siael, Goth. saiwala; of uncertain origin, perhaps akin to L. saeculum a lifetime, age (cf. Secular.)]

  1. The spiritual, rational, and immortal part in man; that part of man which enables him to think, and which renders him a subject of moral government; -- sometimes, in distinction from the higher nature, or spirit, of man, the so-called animal soul, that is, the seat of life, the sensitive affections and phantasy, exclusive of the voluntary and rational powers; -- sometimes, in distinction from the mind, the moral and emotional part of man's nature, the seat of feeling, in distinction from intellect; -- sometimes, the intellect only; the understanding; the seat of knowledge, as distinguished from feeling. In a more general sense, <ldquo/an animating, separable, surviving entity, the vehicle of individual personal existence.<rdquo/
  2. The seat of real life or vitality; the source of action; the animating or essential part.
  3. The leader; the inspirer; the moving spirit; the heart; as, the soul of an enterprise; an able general is the soul of his army.
  4. Energy; courage; spirit; fervor; affection, or any other noble manifestation of the heart or moral nature; inherent power or goodness.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), public domain, via GCIDE

5 Use it with confidence

Model sentences from the sources, matched to the meaning they show. Read each one aloud, then make your own in the game.

nounMeaning: 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.

Flowey: See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!2015 September 15, Toby Fox, Undertale, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X:

nounMeaning: The spirit or essence of anything.

From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

"There's a vibrancy that comes from the building's historic soul metting the rhythm of the Caribbean," says Monnier.2026 May 28, Julie Coe, quoting Annie Monnier, “The Rest is History”, in Architectural Digest, volume 83, number 4, page 36:

nounMeaning: A person, especially as one among many.

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor: I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world, and consign a million souls to oblivion.2011, Relic Entertainment, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution, scene: Exterminatus declared on Typhon Primaris:

nounMeaning: An individual life.

Fifty souls were lost when the ship sank.

adjectiveMeaning: Characteristic of or pertaining to African American culture.

soul music

soul food

verbMeaning: To beg on All Soul's Day.

All Souls' Day was celebrated by souling, a custom going back to pre-Reformation days: soul cakers and mummers toured the village begging for a soul cake — a plain, round, flat cake seasoned with spices.1981, Geoffrey Scard, Squire and tenant: life in rural Cheshire, 1760-1900, page 93:

nounMeaning: the human embodiment of something

the soul of honor

nounMeaning: a secular form of gospel that was a major Black musical genre in the 1960s and 1970s

soul was politically significant during the Civil Rights movement

Princeton WordNet 3.0 — WordNet License
Wiktionary: “soul” (via kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0

Three steps to owning it

  1. Pick one meaning above and read its model sentence out loud.
  2. Say who or what the word is about in your own life, then build a sentence around that.
  3. Check it against the definition: would a careful reader understand exactly that meaning?

6 The mastery game

Play it here, or print it and do it with pen and paper. At the end you will know the meanings, history, origin and original meaning — and you will have used the word yourself.

Step 1 of 9

Say it, then spell it

soul

/səʊl/

Say the word out loud three times, slowly. Notice the stressed syllable. When you are ready, hide it and spell it from memory.

Activate Words · Word-mastery worksheet · Name: ______________________ Date: __________

soul

/səʊl/ · noun, adjective, verb

Step 1 — Say it and write it

Say “soul” out loud three times. Then cover the word and write it three times from memory.

Step 2 — Know every meaning

Read each definition. Then write it again in your own words.

1. (noun) 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. (noun) The spirit or essence of anything.
3. (noun) Life, energy, vigor.
4. (noun) Cultural consciousness and pride among people of African American heritage.
5. (noun) A strong positive feeling of intense sensitivity and emotional fervor conveyed especially by African American performers.

Step 3 — Which meaning is it?

“Fifty souls were lost when the ship sank.”

A. An individual life.
B. Cultural consciousness and pride among people of African American heritage.
C. Soul music.

Circle the meaning used.

“soul music”

A. Soul music.
B. The spirit or essence of anything.
C. Characteristic of or pertaining to African American culture.

Circle the meaning used.

Step 4 — History and origin

Which language did “soul” come into English from?   A. Old English  B. Old French  C. Late Latin  D. New Latin

Write the word’s journey back in time (each language and form):

Write three words built from “soul” and what each means:

Step 5 — Original meaning

The earliest traceable form is Proto-Germanic *saiwalō. What did it mean?

How does that original meaning connect to the meanings today?

Step 6 — Use it yourself

Write a sentence using “soul” to mean: 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.
Write a sentence using “soul” to mean: The spirit or essence of anything.
Write a sentence using “soul” to mean: Life, energy, vigor.

☐ I can explain its meanings   ☐ I know its history   ☐ I know its original language   ☐ I know its original meaning   ☐ I can use it confidently

Answer key — soul

Which meaning, sentence 1: A. An individual life.

Which meaning, sentence 2: C. Characteristic of or pertaining to African American culture.

Origin: A. Old English (Old English sāwol)

Journey: English soul ← Middle English soule ← Old English sāwol ← Proto-West Germanic *saiwalu ← Proto-Germanic *saiwalō

Some derivatives: cybersoul, desoul, ensoul, insoul, neo-soul, object-soul, oversoul, soca

Original meaning: Proto-Germanic *saiwalō — “soul”

Etymology: 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).

Sources: Wiktionary “soul” (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/soul#English), CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org; Princeton WordNet 3.0; Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913, public domain) via GCIDE. Worksheet from https://activatewords.com/w/soul