What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Church vs Spiritual - What's the difference?

church | spiritual |

As a proper noun church

is .

As a noun spiritual is

(christianity|historical) a member of a branch of the franciscan order who advocated simple dress and renounced the owning of property.

church

English

Alternative forms

* churche (obsolete)

Noun

  • (countable) A Christian house of worship; a building where religious services take place.
    • There is a lovely little church in the valley.
    This building used to be a church before being converted into a library.
  • *
  • Christians collectively seen as a single spiritual community; Christianity.
    • These worshippers make up the Church of Christ.
  • * Acts 20:28, New International Version:
    • Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
  • (countable) A local group of people who follow the same Christian religious beliefs, local or general.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • (countable) A particular denomination of Christianity.
    • The Church''' of England separated from the Roman Catholic '''Church in 1534.
  • (uncountable, countable, as bare noun) Christian worship held at a church; service.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • A (non-Christian) religion; a religious group.
  • * 2007 , Scott A. Merriman, Religion and the Law in America , page 313
    • Among these, the church must investigate fundemental questions,
    She goes to a Wiccan church down the road.

    Usage notes

    * Several senses of church are routinely used in prepositional phrases as a bare noun, without a determiner or article. This is like (home) and unlike (house).

    Synonyms

    * (building) chapel (small church), kirk (Scotland) * (group of worshipers) congregation

    Hypernyms

    * (religious group) religion

    Coordinate terms

    * mosque, synagogue, temple, gurdwara, hof, fire temple, circle, mandir, jinja, House of Worship, monastery

    Derived terms

    (church) * Anglican Church * Byzantine Church * broad church * Catholic Church * church affiliation * church bell * church crawler * Church Latin * churchgoer * church-going * church hat * church hop * Churchianity * church key * churchless * churchlike * churchly * churchman * church mode * churchmouse * church music * Church of England * Church of Rome * Church of Scotland * churchperson * church planter/churchplanter * church roll * church school * church service * Church Slavonic * church state * church triumphant * churchward * churchwoman * churchy * churchyard * church year * collegiate church * Congregational church * established church * Eastern Church * Eastern Orthodox Church * free church * Greek Church * Greek Catholic Church * Greek Orthodox Church * High Church * Latin Church * LDS church * Low Church * Lutheran Church * Maronite Church * mega-church/megachurch * New Church * Orthodox Church * Orthodox Catholic Church * Oriental Church * Oriental Orthodox Churches * parish church * particular Church * Roman Catholic Church * union church * Western Church

    Verb

    (es)
  • *:
  • *:Thenne after this lady was delyuerd and chirched / there came a knyghte vnto her / his name was sire Bromel la pleche / the whiche was a grete lord and he hadde loued that lady longe / and he euermore desyred her to wedde her / and soo by no meane she coude putte hym of
  • *1971 , , Religion and the Decline of Magic , Folio Society 2012, page 36:
  • *:Nor did it [the Church] accept that the woman should stay indoors until she had been churched .
  • (label) To educate someone religiously, as in in a church.

    • Derived terms

    * churching of women

    See also

    * (selected ecclesiastical terms) * abbe * abbey * basilica * cathedral * ecclesiastical * Eucharist * house of worship * Kingdom Hall (qualifier, Jehovah's Witness) * liturgy * mass * mission * mosque (Muslim) * pastor * priory * rector * religious * religion * sermon * synagogue (Jewish) * temple (non-Christian) * vicar * worship service

    Statistics

    *

    spiritual

    English

    Alternative forms

    * spirituall, spirytual, spirytuall, spyritual, spyrituall, spyrytual, spyrytuall

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul.
    • Respect towards ancestors is an essential part of Thai spiritual practice.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
    • God's law is spiritual ; it is a transcript of the divine nature, and extends its authority to the acts of the soul of man.
  • Of or pertaining to God or a place of worship; sacred.
  • Of or pertaining to spirits; supernatural.
  • Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal.
    • a spiritual substance or being
  • * Bible, 1. Corinthians xv. 44
    • It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
  • Of or relating to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual.
  • (Christianity) Controlled and inspired by the Holy Spirit; pure; holy.
  • * Bible, Gal. vi. 1
    • If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual , restore such an one.
  • Not lay or temporal; relating to sacred things; ecclesiastical.
    • the spiritual''' functions of the clergy; lords '''spiritual''' and temporal; a '''spiritual corporation

    Derived terms

    * antispiritual * antispiritualism * antispirituality * spiritual desertion * spiritualism * spiritualist * spirituality * spiritually

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A Christian religious song, especially one in an African-American style, or a similar non-religious song.
  • Any spiritual function, office, or affair.
    • He assigns supremacy to the pope in spirituals , and to the emperor in temporals. — Lowell.