soul Definition

soul
noun

1a. The spiritual, non-physical part of someone or something which is often regarded as the source of individuality, personality, morality, will, emotions and intellect, and which is widely believed to survive in some form after the death of the body;

Thesaurus: essence, heart, personality, ego, psyche, genius.
1b. This entity when thought of as having separated from the body after death, but which still retains its essence of individuality, etc.

Thesaurus: ghost, phantom, shade, spirit, apparition, specter, wraith, spook.
2. Emotional sensitivity; morality.

Example: a singer with no soul
Example: cruelty committed by brutes with no soul
3. The essential nature or an energizing or motivating force (of or behind something).

Example: Brevity is the soul of wit
4. colloq
A person or individual.
Example: a kind soul
5. A type of music that has its roots in Black urban rhythm and blues, and which has elements of jazz, gospel, pop, etc which tend to make it more mainstream than traditional blues.

Form: soul music (also)
6. Belonging, relating or referring to Black American culture.

Example: soul food

Idiom: the life and soul of the party etc

See under life.

Idiom: the soul of something

The perfect example of it; the personification of it.
Example: She is the soul of discretion

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon sawol.