1
2
3

Synonym Chooser

How is the word fleshly different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of fleshly are animal, carnal, and sensual. While all these words mean "having a relation to the body," fleshly is less derogatory than carnal.

a saint who had experienced fleshly temptations

When might animal be a better fit than fleshly?

While the synonyms animal and fleshly are close in meaning, animal stresses the physical as distinguished from the rational nature of a person.

led a mindless animal existence

When is carnal a more appropriate choice than fleshly?

While in some cases nearly identical to fleshly, carnal may mean only this but more often connotes derogatorily an action or manifestation of a person's lower nature.

a slave to carnal desires

When would sensual be a good substitute for fleshly?

Although the words sensual and fleshly have much in common, sensual may apply to any gratification of a bodily desire or pleasure but commonly implies sexual appetite with absence of the spiritual or intellectual.

fleshpots providing sensual delights

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of fleshly What the world desires, in short, is a glimpse of a video game, which no one will be able to play until 2025—a game that builds an entire alternative world, glowing with the promise of violence and other fleshly thrills. Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 15 Dec. 2023 But the album offers more than deliciously hedonistic thrills: Thrusting us into their operatic world, this Brooklyn band makes peace with their dark memories and fleshly desires. Pitchfork, 6 Dec. 2023 When another girl, Addie (Mia Pak), tries to explain Jesus’ status as the Son of God—fully fleshly and fully divine—as the meeting of horizontal and vertical lines at the overlapping center of a Venn diagram, Beatrice fisks the idea earnestly. Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2022 The grateful nutcracker becomes a living prince and leads Clara through a spinning snowstorm of ballerinas to a sugary kingdom where flamenco-style dancers spin with twisting torsos and entwining arms as fleshly embodiments of Spanish chocolate. Sarah L. Kaufman, Washington Post, 25 Nov. 2022 There is a leveling effect to his approach, one that allows About Endlessness to find grandeur in the smallest of everyday moments while also highlighting the fallible, fleshly absurdity of even history’s most outsize figures. Alison Willmore, Vulture, 30 Apr. 2021 They were tempted by curiosity and hunger, by fleshly desires. Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The New Yorker, 18 Jan. 2021 When all seems lost, a magical, fleshly reappearance defies death’s despair. Longreads, 14 Apr. 2020 Our fleshly forms evolved to work within the tug of gravity. National Geographic, 12 June 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fleshly
Adjective
  • The camerlengo also administers the goods and temporal rights of the Holy See until a new pope is chosen.
    Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 21 Apr. 2025
  • Unlike image or text generation, music operates within strict temporal and structural constraints.
    Rowan Briggs, Mercury News, 18 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Rather than bearing imagery of the state or the monarchy, Elisabeth’s portraits were focused on her defining physical features, particularly her long, flowing hair.
    Elizabeth Djinis, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Apr. 2025
  • That's according to researchers at the University of Missouri (Mizzou), who made a specific discovery about physical activity's brain benefits.
    Angelica Stabile, FOXNews.com, 28 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Julius’s secretive couplings with a Latino gambler (Diego Calva) are discreet, never sensual like Hernández’s nude compositions.
    Armond White, National Review, 25 Apr. 2025
  • The track stirred controversy at the time for its use of Catholic religious imagery in a sensual context.
    Madison E. Goldberg, People.com, 24 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • But where Apex’s movement is fast-paced and its ever-dwindling map size forces players together over time to ratchet up tension, Marathon feels slow and mundane by comparison.
    Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 2 May 2025
  • Yet managers and leaders often struggle with how to help their employees find more meaningful moments in their work, especially when the tasks they are assigned are boring, mundane and tedious.
    Rachel Pacheco, Forbes.com, 1 May 2025
Adjective
  • Tune into any bodily responses (ease, tension, vitality, etc.).
    Nancy Zamierowski, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025
  • That’s why Florida must implement mandatory bodily injury (BI) liability insurance.
    Richard D Schuler, The Orlando Sentinel, 25 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • To remove any terrestrial water the 50-year-old samples would have absorbed since their return to Earth, Yeo and her team baked the samples overnight in a vacuum furnace.
    Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 25 Apr. 2025
  • Scientists are concerned with how abiogenesis — the inception of life from non-living matter — could have occurred in the first place; some theories state that certain environments on Earth, like hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean or terrestrial hot springs, drove prebiotic processes.
    Jack Knudson, Discover Magazine, 22 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • The lower the figure of magnitude, the brighter the star and Sirius is one of only four stars seen from our earthly perspective with a negative magnitude (-1.45).
    Joe Rao, Space.com, 25 Apr. 2025
  • Following a ceremony, the body is dressed in a white cassock – a long robe with 33 buttons, one for each year of the earthly life of Jesus.
    George Petras, USA Today, 23 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Rendering is a process that transforms animal by-products, like leftover meat and fats...and yes, chicken feet, into usable materials, such as animal feed, fuel, and other industrial products.
    Phil Kafarakis, Forbes.com, 1 May 2025
  • One study of about 200 Korean scientists found that animal researchers had significantly higher anxiety scores than non-animal researchers.
    Celia Ford, Vox, 3 Mar. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Fleshly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fleshly. Accessed 5 May. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on fleshly

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!