Complete classic literature • Five-line readings • Clear US narration
VELMORA ACADEMY
Academy of Archival Languages & Memory Studies
Menu Close

soul

noun US /soʊl/

the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life

How often you will meet it

Rank 388 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 50,806 times across 155,139 chapters — 0.024% of every word in the library.

It belongs to the first 500 words, the band worth learning before any other.

What it means

noun

  1. the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life also: psyche
  2. a human being also: person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal there was too much for one person to do
  3. deep feeling or emotion also: soulfulness
  4. the human embodiment of something the soul of honor
  5. 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

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary · Princeton WordNet 3.1

soul in real books

Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.

  • The harmony of soul and body—how much that is!

    The Picture of Dorian Gray · Oscar Wilde · Chapter 1

  • During the slave regime, the Southern white man owned the Negro body and soul.

    The Red Record Tabulated Statistics · Ida B. Wells-Barnett · Chapter 1

  • My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

    The White Christmas and other Merry · Walter Ben Hare · Chapter 1

  • His strongest outward characteristic was quietness, both of manner, speech, motions, springing, it appeared, out of a corresponding quietness of soul.

    Christian's Mistake · Dinah Maria Mulock Craik · Chapter 1

  • Once he had known birds only by sight, but now he knew every calling, twittering, winging soul of them by name.

    The Heart of the Hills · John, Jr. Fox · Chapter 1

Nearby in the frequency table

The whole table Read a book