Body

How to spell body

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce body

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does body mean?

1. nounThe complete physical structure of a person or animal.
2. nounThe main or central part of an object, document, or structure.
3. nounAn organised group of people working or acting as a unit.

Body in a sentence

• Regular exercise keeps the body strong and flexible.

• The body of the email explained the new schedule in detail.

• The governing body approved the budget for next year.

• The doctor examined every part of his body during the checkup.

• Rust had spread across the body of the old car.

• A student body elected its representatives last week.

Where does body come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word, descending from the Old English bodig, which named the trunk or frame of a person or animal. Its history is genuinely puzzling because it has no clear relatives in the other Germanic languages; the German Bottich exists but the connection is debated, leaving the deeper origin uncertain. From the start it referred to the physical structure of a living creature, and over the centuries it broadened to cover a corpse, the main part of any object, and a group of people working together, as in a governing body. The spelling stayed remarkably stable, keeping the single 'd' from bodig even though the second vowel weakened to the schwa we hear today. Because the word is so old and so common, its straightforward four-letter shape rarely troubles writers.

How the word is built

• bod- (from Old English bodig: trunk, frame)
• -y (forming the noun)