bodiless - Meaning, Image, Examples & Etymology - Learn English Visually

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bodiless

|bod-i-less|

🇺🇸

/ˈbɑdɪləs/

🇬🇧

/ˈbɒdɪləs/

without a body

Etymology

Etymology Information

'bodiless' originates from Old English elements: specifically the root 'bodig' (the ancestor of modern 'body') and the suffix 'lēas', where 'bodig' meant 'trunk, body' and 'lēas' meant 'without, free from'.

Historical Evolution

'bodiless' changed from Middle English forms such as 'bodyless' (itself from Old English 'bodig' + 'lēas') and eventually became the modern English word 'bodiless'.

Meaning Changes

Initially, it meant 'without a body' in a literal sense, and over time this literal meaning has been preserved while also developing figurative uses meaning 'lacking physical substance'.

Meanings by Part of Speech

Adjective 1

without a body; lacking a physical, material body; disembodied.

The ghost was described as a bodiless presence that whispered in the night.

Synonyms

disembodied incorporeal immaterialbodiless (literary synonym: for emphasis)

Antonyms

bodiedcorporeal embodied material

Adjective 2

figurative: lacking physical substance or concrete form (e.g., an idea or voice that has no physical embodiment).

They heard a bodiless voice over the radio that carried no sense of where it came from.

Synonyms