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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 Murderbot has been realized in fleshly form in the sculpted body of Alexander Skarsgård, on the new Apple TV+ series of the same name. Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 13 June 2025 That was the thing about Succession — its characters were monstrous, but the show never lost sight of their fleshly fallibility, their doubts and vulnerabilities. Alison Willmore, Vulture, 31 May 2025 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 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fleshly
Adjective
  • This temporal displacement frees Pynchon to offer sidelong commentary on contemporary politics without getting trapped in the flux of the present or being too on the nose.
    Jack Denton, Vulture, 6 Oct. 2025
  • To practice ‘future temporal focused’ networking, create a timetable and ask yourself key questions.
    Sarah Maokosy, Fortune, 4 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • In a world where fake medical implants, counterfeit microchips, and cloned devices can threaten lives, money, and security, proving that a physical object is truly genuine is a major challenge.
    Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 19 Oct. 2025
  • The onslaught has also reduced churches and town halls across northeastern Ukraine to rubble, and with them, much of the physical and mental infrastructure of life for the country’s youth.
    Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 19 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Frankincense and resins open the composition, mingling with tonka and vanilla bean for a sensual, sophisticated, and addictive aroma that invites you to linger beside a boutique hotel’s flickering fireplace on a cold night.
    Michael Stefanov, Robb Report, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Even without the models, the sample runway light show was sensual, inviting, synced with pulsing music.
    Evan Clark, Footwear News, 14 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Now, many employers are looking to harness the power of AI—initially for mundane and repetitive tasks and eventually for more complicated jobs—to reduce the need to maintain the same level of human staffers on their payrolls.
    Jason Del Rey, Fortune, 15 Oct. 2025
  • The remarkable video that injects divisive politics into the mundane process of airport security has sparked controversy as many airports refuse to show it.
    Alexandra Skores, CNN Money, 14 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Sanchez is facing a level 5 felony battery resulting in serious bodily injury charge and three misdemeanor charges, battery resulting in injury, public intoxication, and unlawful entry of a motor vehicle.
    Noe Padilla, IndyStar, 12 Oct. 2025
  • The rhythms of the menstrual cycle often reflect balance in other bodily systems and functions.
    Megan Feringa, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Instead of running physical cables that connect your home or RV to the greater internet, Starlink uses a series of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that communicate between your home dish and a terrestrial gateway somewhere else on Earth.
    PC Magazine, PC Magazine, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Their deals have come against a backdrop of a post-peak TV era where terrestrial television is in decline and the new normal is consolidation.
    Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 12 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • In early Christian thinking, its connotations of languor and listlessness, within the spirit no less than the body, lent it the status of a sin—a turning aside from God for the sake of earthly sorrow.
    Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
  • Ordinary matter makes up everything from the cosmic (planets and stars) to the earthly (people and trees).
    Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 13 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • In 2022, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 paved the way for alternatives to animal testing, and in December 2023, an NIH advisory committee made similar recommendations to develop non-animal methods.
    Rachel Fobar, Vox, 14 May 2025
  • 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

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Cite this Entry

“Fleshly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fleshly. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.

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