Soulful
adjectiveExpressing or full of deep, heartfelt emotion or feeling.
How to spell soulful
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce soulful
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does soulful mean?
- adjectiveExpressing or full of deep, heartfelt emotion or feeling.
Soulful in a sentence
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The singer gave a soulful performance that moved the whole audience.
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He gave her a soulful look before leaving the room.
Where does soulful come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The first part of this word, soul, descends from the Old English sawol, the word for the spiritual or immaterial part of a person, the seat of feeling and thought. It belongs to the wider Germanic family, with close cousins such as the Dutch ziel and the German Seele, and its ultimate origin before that is uncertain. The adjective ending -ful is the same native English element meaning 'full of', the one seen in joyful, careful, and powerful. Joined together, soulful literally describes something that is 'full of soul', and the compound only became common in the nineteenth century to mean richly expressive of deep feeling. A useful spelling note: the soul- part keeps the silent 'o' and 'u' from the noun, while the ending is a single -ful, never the doubled -full of the standalone word full.
How the word is built
- soul (from Old English sawol: spirit, inner self)
- -ful (adjective suffix: full of)
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