as in spiritual
not composed of matter
ghosts are supposed to be incorporeal
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Recent Examples of incorporeal
In fact, magical life has the potential to be even more radically incorporeal than our own.
—
Literary Hub, 26 June 2025
Indeed, in stark contrast to the incorporeal nature of a digital image, each of Winant’s photographs is, in a sense, a discrete body: a fallible material entity that boasts a hidden physical history and that will compositionally deteriorate over time.
—Jessica Simmons-Reid, Artforum, 1 June 2025
To the casual observer, the data industry can seem incorporeal, its products conjured out of weightless bits.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Oct. 2024
If reason teaches that God is incorporeal, this means that God has no body; God does not physically see, nor do people see God.
—Randy L. Friedman, The Conversation, 16 Feb. 2024
Their physical bodies — and your own — get entangled with those pictorial references to bodily experience, bringing a ghostly, incorporeal picture home.
—Christopher Knightart Critic, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2022
The digital files are incorporeal.
—BostonGlobe.com, 9 June 2021
The network is incorporeal.
—J.m. Ledgard, Wired, 12 May 2021
After all, if someone can live without a brain, this would seem to open the door to belief in an incorporeal soul.
—Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 27 Jan. 2020
Literary Hub, 26 June 2025
Indeed, in stark contrast to the incorporeal nature of a digital image, each of Winant’s photographs is, in a sense, a discrete body: a fallible material entity that boasts a hidden physical history and that will compositionally deteriorate over time.
—Jessica Simmons-Reid, Artforum, 1 June 2025
To the casual observer, the data industry can seem incorporeal, its products conjured out of weightless bits.
—IEEE Spectrum, 30 Oct. 2024
If reason teaches that God is incorporeal, this means that God has no body; God does not physically see, nor do people see God.
—Randy L. Friedman, The Conversation, 16 Feb. 2024
Their physical bodies — and your own — get entangled with those pictorial references to bodily experience, bringing a ghostly, incorporeal picture home.
—Christopher Knightart Critic, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2022
The digital files are incorporeal.
—BostonGlobe.com, 9 June 2021
The network is incorporeal.
—J.m. Ledgard, Wired, 12 May 2021
After all, if someone can live without a brain, this would seem to open the door to belief in an incorporeal soul.
—Neuroskeptic, Discover Magazine, 27 Jan. 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for incorporeal
Adjective
-
Aloka was found by Bhikkhu Pannakara, vice president of the center and spiritual leader of the walk, during a peace walk in India, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.—
Joe Marusak,
Charlotte Observer,
10 Jan. 2026
-
When the music dissolves into an ethereal, ambient soundscape and a psychedelic, spiritual journey, that’s where finding the right amount of energy, aggression, violence, and grief, to support the story and to explain things that the dialog couldn’t, was the most challenging part.—
Jazz Tangcay,
Variety,
9 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Beverly, a waitress who had another daughter and then a son in the two years after Smith was born (and eventually one more daughter), had little time for her eldest’s metaphysical ponderings.—
Amy Weiss-Meyer,
The Atlantic,
31 Oct. 2025
-
The film follows a young couple (Qualley and Starkey), who inherit a farm in rural Arkansas and must conquer the demons, both physical and metaphysical, that haunt its legacy.—
Justin Kroll,
Deadline,
31 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Set in Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980s, Stranger Things starts with a true-crime mystery that quickly turns supernatural.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
7 Jan. 2026
-
An epic with supernatural and epigenetic overtones, this debut novel looks like a feast of a story.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
In fact, effectively invisible, dark matter can only be inferred due to its interaction with gravity and the effect this has on light and conventional matter.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
5 Jan. 2026
-
The best officials are invisible.—
Nick Canepa,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
3 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
As is always the political case in this city, crime is spoken about in a faceless and bodiless manner, even when the numbers of those who kill and who are killed by gunfire remain high among this group: young, Black and male.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
28 Aug. 2025
-
That the bodiless voice of Captain Kafetzis was now coming to me live from above my proprietary Cashmere mattress indicated the obvious seriousness of what had happened in the night.—
Lauren Oyler,
Harper’s Magazine ,
10 Apr. 2023
Adjective
-
The fact Mahomes got hurt is immaterial to the fact the Chiefs were always bound to fall.—
Andrew Callahan,
Hartford Courant,
5 Jan. 2026
-
Those details are immaterial now.—
Alex Zietlow,
Charlotte Observer,
2 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
In Ayurveda, Prana, the life force carried by the breath, is understood to nourish both the mind and body and can be viewed as a nonphysical substance, finer than oxygen.—
Trisha Swift,
Forbes.com,
28 July 2025
-
In accounting, intangible assets are nonphysical possessions including such things as brands and intellectual property, software, mineral rights ‒ and contracts.—
Alexander Coolidge,
The Enquirer,
2 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Incorporeal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/incorporeal. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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