Word.ws English Dictionary

body

Syllables: bo·dy/ˈbɒdi/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈbɔdiɪj/

body noun: the physical structure of a human or animal seen as one single organism.

Noun

body (countable and uncountable, plural bodies)

  1. (countable) The physical structure of a human or animal seen as one single organism.
    • I saw them walking from a distance, their bodies strangely angular in the dawn light.
    • If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body: is it therefore not of the body?
    • And if the eare shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body: is it therefore not of the body?
    • If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
    • But now hath God set the members, euery one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
    • And if they were all one member, where were the body?
    • But now are they many members, yet but one body.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 12:15–20
  2. The fleshly or corporeal nature of a human, as opposed to the spirit or soul.
    • The body is driven by desires, but the soul is at peace.
    Synonyms:
    tabernacle
  3. (countable) A corpse.
    • Her body was found at four o’clock, just two hours after the murder.
    • The bodies of 19-year-old best friends Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones were returned to Australia on Tuesday night.2024 November 27, Jessie Yeung and Isaac Yee, “Laos detains foreign hostel staff over backpacker methanol poisonings as families and travelers demand answers”, in CNN
  4. (slang, African-American Vernacular) A murder.
    • His gun had two bodies on it.
    • He caught a body and got forty years in prison.
  5. (archaic or informal except in compounds) A person.
    • Indeed, if it belonged to a poor body, it would be another thing; but so great a lady, to be sure, can never want it […]
    • "Will ye giv a body a taste o' yer beer to thry?" sez Tom.1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 374
  6. A human being, regarded as marginalized or oppressed.
    • the early modern English husband not only took control over his wife's property upon marriage, he also acquired property in her body.1994, M. Lindsey Kaplan, Katherine Eggert, ““Good queen, my lord, good queen” - Sexual Slander and the Trials of Female Authority in “The Winter's Tale””, in Renaissance Drama, volume 25, →DOI, page...
    • This, of course, was not about the State, but it was certainly an invasion: black bodies acting out in a public domain circumscribed by a racist culture. The Garvey movement presents an example of black bodies transgressing racialized spatial boundaries.1999, Devon Carbado, Black Men on Race, Gender, and Sexuality: A Critical Reader, page 87
  7. The torso, the main structure of a human or animal frame excluding the extremities (limbs, head, tail).
    • The boxer took a blow to the body.
  8. The largest or most important part of anything, as distinct from its appendages or accessories; (of vehicles, sometimes) the outer shell (as contrasted with the frame and powertrain).
    • The bumpers and front tyres were ruined, but the body of the car was in remarkable shape.
    • The railless vehicles have been supplied by the Railless Electric Traction Company, of London, as contractors, to the joint specification of the general managers of the Leeds and Bradford Tramways. The bodies have all been constructed by Messrs. Hurst, Nelson and Company, of Motherwell.1911 July 6, “Railless traction at Leeds and Bradford”, in The Tramway and Railway World: A Review of Current Progress in Electric and Other Traction, volume 30, number July 6, London, England, page...
  9. (archaic) The section of a dress extending from the neck to the waist, excluding the arms.
    • Penny was in the scullery, pressing the body of her new dress.
  10. The content of a letter, message, or other printed or electronic document, as distinct from signatures, salutations, headers, and so on.
  11. (countable) A bodysuit.
  12. The code of a subroutine, contrasted to its signature and parameters.
    • In many programming languages, the method body is enclosed in braces.
Show 11 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. Nave.
  2. A group of people having a common purpose or opinion; a mass.
    • I was escorted from the building by a body of armed security guards.
  3. An organisation, company or other authoritative group.
    • The local train operating company is the managing body for this section of track.
  4. A unified collection of details, knowledge or information.
    • We have now amassed a body of evidence which points to one conclusion.
  5. (countable) Any physical object or material thing.
    • All bodies are held together by internal forces.
    • Arriving during late spring in the satellite's southern hemisphere, Voyager found the coldest body in the solar system, minus 235°C (-391°F).1990 August, Rick Gore, “Neptune: Voyager's Last Picture Show”, in National Geographic, volume 178, number 2, page 42
  6. (uncountable) Substance; physical presence.
    • The voice had an extraordinary sadness. Pure from all body, pure from all passion, going out into the world, solitary, unanswered, breaking against rocks—so it sounded.1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC
    • We have given body to what was just a vague idea.
  7. (uncountable) Comparative viscosity, solidity or substance (in wine, colours etc.).
    • The red wine, sadly, lacked body.
    • "I’d Be Lost Without You" seems somewhat out of place from a vocal viewpoint — Lewis’s slightly reedy middle soprano is very expressive and absolutely true, but doesn’t have enough dark body to fully deal with the torchy melody.1989 August 12, Caroline Foty, “Hindsights”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 5, page 7
  8. (uncountable) Volume.
    • Experimented with turning my hair up with cans. Rollers aren't large enough and leave a curl when you want body and just straightness.1965 January 7, Lou Sullivan, Diary
  9. An agglomeration of some substance, especially one that would be otherwise uncountable.
    • The English Channel is a body of water lying between Great Britain and France.
    • In a gentle breeze, the whole body of air, as far as the breeze extends, moves at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour; in a high wind, at the rate of seventy, eighty, or an hundred miles an hour […]1806 June 26, Thomas Paine, “The cause of Yellow Fever and the means of preventing it, in places not yet infected with it, addressed to the Board of Health in America”, in The political and...
  10. The shank of a type, or the depth of the shank (by which the size is indicated).
    • a nonpareil face on an agate body
    • The stemless notes could have been cast on a body as short as 4 mm but were probably cast on bodies of the standard 14 mm size for ease of composition.1992, Mary Kay Duggan, Italian Music Incunabula: Printers and Type, page 99
  11. A three-dimensional object, such as a cube or cone.

Verb

body (third-person singular simple present bodies, present participle bodying, simple past and past participle bodied)

  1. (often, transitive) To give body or shape to something.
    • And as imagination bodies forth / The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen / Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
    • [A]s you stand on the steps of the Castle Green in this strange place, you feel quite floaty. This you are told is the scene of the Merthyr riots; and you feel still floatier as you body forth before your eyes a picture like the following— […]1851 March 22, “The Foreign Country at Home. IV. Abergavenny to Swansea.”, in Leigh Hunt, editor, Leigh Hunt’s Journal; a Miscellany for the Cultivation of the Memorable, the Progressive, and the...
  2. To construct the bodywork of a car.
  3. (transitive) To embody.
    • I don’t say, one bodies the other / One’s spiritual truth; / But I do say it’s hard to lose either, / When you have both.1955, Philip Larkin, Toads
  4. (slang, transitive, African-American Vernacular) To murder someone.
    1. (broadly, slang, transitive, African-American Vernacular) To utterly defeat someone.
      • I keep getting bodied by kids half my age.2023, “Gaming at 24”, in hyperx (comic)

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Body

Body

  1. A surname transferred from the nickname.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Body

the Body

  1. (archaic, Cambridge University slang) Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

body meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

body in Hindi

physical structure of a human or animal
शरीर śarīr, देह deh, बदन badan, तन tan
group having a common purpose or opinion
दल dal
organisation, company or other authoritative group
संघ saṅgh

body in Tamil

physical structure of a human or animal
உடல் uṭal, உடம்பு uṭampu, மெய் mey
fleshly or corporeal nature of a human
உடல் uṭal, உடம்பு uṭampu
main content of a text
உள்ளடக்கம் uḷḷaṭakkam
group having a common purpose or opinion
கூட்டம் kūṭṭam, குழு kuḻu

body in Marathi

physical structure of a human or animal
शरीर śarīr

body in Urdu

physical structure of a human or animal
بَدَن badan, تَن tan, شَرِیر śarīr, جِسْم jism, دیہْ deh
More languagesFewer languages
body in Bengali
শরীর śorir, দেহ dehô, জেসম jeśom, ওজুদ ōjud
body in Telugu
శరీరము śarīramu, కాయము kāyamu
body in Malayalam
ശരീരം śarīraṁ
body in Kannada
ಮೈ mai, ಶರೀರ śarīra
body in Punjabi
ਪਿੰਡਾ piṇḍā, ਸਰੀਰ sarīr, ਦੇਹ deh
body in Gujarati
શરીર śarīr, બદન badan, કાયા kāyā, દેહ deh
body in Odia
ଦେହ deha, କରଣ karaṇa, ଘନ ghana, କାରଣ kāraṇa
body in Sanskrit
शरीर śarīra, देह deha, तनू tanū
body in Sinhala
ශරීරය śarīraya
body in Assamese
শৰীৰ xorir, গা ga
body in Nepali
शरीर śarīra
body in Pashto
بدن badán, باډۍ bāḍǝ́y
body in Tagalog
katawan
body in Arabic
بَدَن badan, جِسْم jism, جَسَد jasad, جسم gesm
body in Malay
badan, tubuh, jasad
body in Indonesian
tubuh, badan
body in Persian
بَدَن badan, تَن tan, پَیْکَر paykar, پِیْکَر peykar
body in Thai
ร่างกาย râang-gaai, กาย gaai
body in Vietnamese
thân thể, cơ thể, thân, mình
body in Myanmar
ကိုယ် kuiy, ကာယ kaya., ခန္ဓာ hkandha
Dhivehi
ހަށިގަނޑު haṣigaⁿḍu

Examples of body in a sentence

  • What’s a body gotta do to get a drink around here?
  • A body's got to do things when he's awful hungry he wouldn't want to do as a steady thing.1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 28, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American...
  • “Well,” I says, “I cal’late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • Says a body who can whip his brother Dell must be a body worth knowing.1995 June 30, Cyberflix, Dust: A Tale of the Wired West, GTE Entertainment, 16-bit Windows, level/area: Hard Drive:
  • Using three-dimensional seismic and well data from the northern North Sea, we describe a large (10 km³) body of sand and interpret it as extrusive.2012 March 19, Helge Løseth, Nuno Rodrigues, Peter R. Cobbold, “World's largest extrusive body of sand?”, in Geology, volume 40, number 5:

All 40 example sentences with body

Synonyms of body

All synonyms of body

Forms of body

Noun
pluralbodies
alternative form (obsolete)bodie
Verb
third-person singular presentbodies
present participlebodying
past participlebodied
pastbodied
Proper noun
alternative formBodie

Past tense of body: bodied

Plural of body: bodies

Origin of body

From Middle English body, bodi, bodiȝ, from Old English bodiġ, bodeġ (“body, trunk, chest, torso, height, stature”), from Proto-West Germanic *bodag (“body, trunk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- (“to be awake, observe”). Cognate with Old High German botah (“body, corpse, trunk, torso”) (whence Swabian Bottich (“body, torso”), Bavarian Bottich (“body, torso, carcass; lower part of a shirt or jacket”)).

* As an English surname, from Middle English body, probably a nickname for a corpulent person; and occupational surname from Middle English bode (“messenger”) + -y (diminutive ending). Equivalent to bode (“messenger, herald”) + -y. * As a French surname, variant of Bodin. * As a Hungarian surname Bódy, variant of Bódi, Bodi.

Words formed from body

Phrases with body

162 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with body

Questions about body

What does body mean?
Body means the physical structure of a human or animal seen as one single organism.
What is body in Hindi?
Body in Hindi is शरीर (śarīr), देह (deh), बदन (badan). See Body meaning in Hindi.
How do you use body in a sentence?
What’s a body gotta do to get a drink around here?
What part of speech is body?
Body can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce body?
Body is pronounced /ˈbɒdi/ (UK).
What is the plural of body?
The plural of body is bodies.

Words near body in the dictionary

  1. Bodumohoraa
  2. Bodumungnafushi
  3. Bodurehaa
  4. Bodwell
  5. Bodwells
  6. body
  7. body and soul
  8. body armor
  9. body armour
  10. body art
  11. body bag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: body (page history and authors); Body (page history and authors); କରଣ (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-body.ogg, en-us-body.ogg.

Cite this entry: “body.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/body. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.