Inspirational

How to spell inspirational

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce inspirational

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inspirational mean?

1. adjectiveProviding encouragement, motivation, or the impulse to do something creative or worthwhile.

Inspirational in a sentence

• The coach gave an inspirational talk before the final match.

• Her recovery from illness was an inspirational story for the whole ward.

Where does inspirational come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb inspirare, which literally meant 'to breathe into', built from the prefix in- 'into' and spirare 'to breathe'. In its earliest religious sense it described a divine breath being breathed into a person, the idea that a god or spirit filled someone with a thought or feeling. The noun inspiration passed through Old French into English in the 1300s with that spiritual meaning, and only over later centuries did it broaden into the everyday sense of being stirred to creativity or effort. The adjective inspirational, formed by adding -al to inspiration, is comparatively modern and became common in the 1800s. The same spirare root breathes through a whole family of relatives such as 'respire', 'expire', 'perspire', and 'spirit', and remembering that shared 'breathe' core helps fix the single s and the -spir- spelling in the middle.

How the word is built

• in- (into)
• spir (from Latin spirare: to breathe)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)
• -al (adjective-forming suffix)