incarnate
/ɪnˈkɑːneɪt/US/ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/
incarnate adjective: embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified.
Adjective (1)
incarnate (not comparable)
- Embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified.
- Here shalt thou sit incarnate.1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- He […] represents the emperor and his wife as two devils incarnate, sent into the world for the destruction of mankind.1751-1753, John Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History
- Flesh-colored; crimson.
- Yards of Turkey silk incarnate.1721, John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials; Relating Chiefly to Religion, and the Reformation of It, and the Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII. King Edward VI. and Queen...
Verb
incarnate (third-person singular simple present incarnates, present participle incarnating, simple past and past participle incarnated)
- To embody in flesh; to invest with a bodily, especially a human, form.
- For one thing, we virtually decided that these morbidities and the hellish Himalayan Mi-Go were one and the same order of incarnated nightmare.1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 2, in The Whisperer in Darkness
- Not all of the soul can incarnate into a body; the part which is left above is the psyche.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 218
- To gain full existence (bodily or otherwise).
- SCP-3125 incarnated the following winter.2019 August 26, qntm, “Unthreaded”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 161
- To incarn; to become covered with flesh; to heal over.
- My uncle Toby’s wound was near well, and as soon as the surgeon recovered his surprize, and could get leave to say as much—he told him, 'twas just beginning to incarnate.1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 83
- To make carnal; to reduce the spiritual nature of.
- This essence to incarnate and imbrute, / That to the height of deity aspired.1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
- To put into or represent in a concrete form, as an idea.
- Truly, that special world presented itself to me as the arena of my perceptual activity and therefore as the world of my first reading. The texts, the words, the letters of that context were incarnated in a series of things, objects, and signs.2005, Paulo Freire, Donaldo Macedo, Literacy: Reading the Word and the World, →ISBN, page 20
- Responding to this in confusion, perhaps you construct an Idea, a structure, a multiplicity, a system of multiple, nonlocalisable ideal connections which is then incarnated. It is incarnated in real (not ideal) relations and actual (physical) terms, each of which exists in relation to each other...2006, Constantin V. Boundas, Deleuze and Philosophy, →ISBN, page 160
Adjective (2)
incarnate (not comparable)
- Not in the flesh; spiritual.
- I fear nothing […] that devil carnate or incarnate can fairly do.1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC
incarnate meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
incarnate in Tamil
- வந்து பிறத்தல்
incarnate in Bengali
- মূর্ত, শরীরী, অবতাররূপী, রক্তমাংসের
incarnate in Malayalam
- to incarnate
- അവതരിക്കുക avatarikkuka
incarnate in Kannada
- ಅವತರಿಸಿದ, ಮೈವೆತ್ತ, ಮೂರ್ತಿಮತ್ತಾದ, ಮೈದಾಳಿದ, ಮೂರ್ತೀಭವಿಸಿದ
More languagesFewer languages
- incarnate in Arabic
- جَسَّدَ jassada
Examples of incarnate in a sentence
- Once the soul incarnates in mortal bodies, in encounters massive impediments.
- In any other universe, they’d probably be 1v1ing Batman since you’re sure they’re the Joker incarnate.
- There is no latent structure incarnated, no inherent skyness or lakeness in an abstract structural relation.
Forms of incarnate
| third-person singular present | incarnates |
|---|---|
| present participle | incarnating |
| past participle | incarnated |
| past | incarnated |
Origin of incarnate
First attested in 1395, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English incarnat(e) (“(of God or Christ) embodied in human form or flesh, incarnate; provided with new tissues, healed; (with devel, in curses) bloody”), borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin incarnātus, perfect passive participle of incarnor (“to be made flesh, become incarnate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- + Latin carō (“flesh”, carn- in its oblique stem) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). By surface analysis, in- + Latin carn- + -ate.
First attested in 1533; borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin incarnātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
From in- + carnate.
Words formed from incarnate
Questions about incarnate
- What does incarnate mean?
- Incarnate means embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified.
- What is incarnate in Tamil?
- Incarnate in Tamil is வந்து பிறத்தல். See Incarnate meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is incarnate?
- Incarnate can be an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce incarnate?
- Incarnate is pronounced /ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/ (US).
Words near incarnate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incarnate (page history and authors); incarnate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Incarnate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); അവതരിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); incarnate (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-incarnate.wav.
Cite this entry: “incarnate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incarnate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.