I got lots of responses but not the word I was looking for, however,
The closest word matching the definition of "lacking spirituality" is acedia, which
has the great definition: "spiritual inactivity or boredom, apathy and inactivity
in the practice of virtue", which was definitely the concept I was trying to
describe, so I will go with acedia
ORIGINAL TARGET:
Years ago I learned a wonderful word that meant "lacking spirituality"
Does anybody know what this word is? I'd consider it one of those $1000. vocabulary
words.
Or if you know of some type of reverse dictionary that allows you to look up
definitions that'd be great.
I tried the OED but I couldn't find it. I don't even remember the first letter of
the word, otherwise I'd happily read through that whole part of the dictionary.
It's that great a word.
here are the other responses:
*****
I saw your request for a word for "lacking spirituality." A colleague here at the
NY State Library suggests "heterodox." Here's one definition: "not in accordance
with established or accepted doctrines or opinions, esp. in theology; unorthodox."
*****
Not the right word but might convey something similar: "philistine"
*****
materialist - emphasizes material existence over spiritual values.
humanist - emphasizes human over divine or supernatural aspects.
Macs has a good hypertexted dictionary, complete with antonyms.
*****
well, a google search reveals "worldly" as being defined as "lacking spirituality",
with synonyms of
worldly
modif.
Lacking spirituality or idealism
mundane, earthly, ungodly, matter-of-fact, practical, secular, profane, strategic,
grubbing, money-making, unprincipled, power-loving, self-centered, opportunistic,
sophisticated.
Antonyms spiritual*, religious*, idealistic. *
Referring to life on the earth
terrestrial, earthly, sublunary, mundane, telluric, human, natural, temporal. See
syn. study at earthly.earthly.
I like SUBLUNARY and TELLURIC myself. :-)
*****
You may already received an answer but my reverse dictionary lists
spiritual lethargy as: accidie, acedia.
*****
also temporal
*****
worldly
Lacking spirituality or idealism
mundane, earthly, ungodly, matter-of-fact, practical, secular, profane, strategic,
grubbing, money-making, unprincipled, power-loving, self-centered, opportunistic,
sophisticated.
Antonyms spiritual*, religious*, idealistic. *
*****
The only word I can think of is secularity.
*****
Could you have been thinking of "temporal"?
*****
Maybe this would help?
http://www.onelook.com/?w=*&loc=revfp2&clue=lacking+spirituality
*****
Couldit be wordly - or profane - or secular?
*****
I used google and found the following -
*Synonyms *
worldly
modif.
Lacking spirituality or idealism
mundane <http://www.yourdictionary.com/mundane>, earthly
<http://www.yourdictionary.com/earthly>, ungodly
<http://www.yourdictionary.com/ungodly>, matter-of-fact
<http://www.yourdictionary.com/matter-of-fact>, practical
<http://www.yourdictionary.com/practical>, secular
<http://www.yourdictionary.com/secular>, profane
<http://www.yourdictionary.com/profane>, strategic
<http://www.yourdictionary.com/strategic>, grubbing, money-making,
unprincipled <http://www.yourdictionary.com/unprincipled>, power-loving,
self-centered <http://www.yourdictionary.com/self-centered>,
opportunistic <http://www.yourdictionary.com/opportunistic>,
sophisticated. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/sophisticated>
*****
Carnal ???
Reprobate ???
*****
Here are some synonyms for worldly. Is it one of these?
carnal, earthly, earthy, fleshly, human, lay, materialistic, mundane, natural,
physical, practical, profane, secular, sublunary, telluric, temporal, terrene,
terrestrial, ungodly
*****
If you search Google with the following:
"lacking spirituality" definition
you'll come up with many words including carnal, profane, worldly.
*****
acephalous?
pusillanimous?
insensate?
*****
A quick Google search pulled up these links:
http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml
http://dictionary.reference.com/reverse/
*****
Acedia? It means spiritual apathy. However, it doesn't sound like you
were looking for a noun.
*****
worldly ??
Lacking spirituality or idealism
synonyms: mundane, earthly, ungodly, matter-of-fact, practical, secular, profane,
strategic, grubbing, money-making, unprincipled, power-loving, self-centered,
opportunistic, sophisticated.
*****
Are you looking for the word "acedia"? It's in the title of Kathleen Norris' new
book, "Acedia and Me".
*****
These are probably not what you were thinking of, but the thesaurus gives them as
antonyms of "spiritual."
Near Antonyms earthly, mundane, worldly; irreligious, semireligious
Antonyms nonreligious, profane, secular
*****
Materialism?
*****
_____________________________________
Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS
Librarian
Damrosch Day Treatment School
NYC Department of Education
750 Jennings Street
Bronx, NY 10459
voice: 718 378-0006 x2172
fax: 718 589-9544
p s a r l e s @ s c h o o l s . n y c . g o v
http://damroschlibrary.blogspot.com/
http://wjdlibrary.wikispaces.com/
"Ten guards and the warden couldn't have torn me out of those books. Months passed
without even thinking about being imprisoned....I had never been so truly free in
my life." - Malcolm X
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