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.

Ethereal vs Incorporeal - What's the difference?

ethereal | incorporeal |

As adjectives the difference between ethereal and incorporeal

is that ethereal is pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions while incorporeal is having no material form or physical substance.

ethereal

English

Alternative forms

* aethereal * aetherial * * (obsolete) * * (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.
  • * 1667 : , Paradise Lost , book VII
  • Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger.
  • * 1862 : , Walking .
  • I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal , as our sky,...
  • Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.
  • * 1733 : , An Essay on Man
  • Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal , human, angel, man.
  • Delicate, light and airy.
  • Derived terms

    * ethereality * ethereally * etherealness * etherealization * etherealisation * etherealizing

    incorporeal

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having no material form or physical substance.
  • * Milton
  • Thus incorporeal spirits to smaller forms / Reduced their shapes immense.
  • * Bentley
  • Sense and perception must necessarily proceed from some incorporeal substance within us.
  • (legal) Relating to an asset that does not have a material form; such as a patent.
  • Synonyms

    * (having no material form) disembodied; intangible

    Antonyms

    * corporeal