Word.ws English Dictionary

licham

/ˈlɪt͡ʃəm/

licham noun: the human body, especially when living.

Noun

licham (plural not attested)

  1. (UK, dialectal, no plural, obsolete, rare) The human body, especially when living.
    • […] Nor a living for your licham that lief is to your soul.
      Believe not your licham, for a liar teaches him
      Which is the wretched world that wishes to betray you.1973, Frank Kermode, John Hollander, The Oxford Anthology of English Literature, volume 1, page 358
    • For no lickerish living their licham to please.1987, Romano Carlo Cerrone, Piero Pignata, England & Co, page 51

Forms of licham

alternative form (dialectal)leccam

Origin of licham

From Middle English licham, lichame, from Old English līċhama (“body”), from Proto-West Germanic *līkahamō, from Proto-Germanic *līkahamô, equivalent to like (“body”) + hame (“covering, case”). In Old English, līchama was the general term for "body," while līċ had come to mean a dead body specifically. Cognate with Scots lekame (“body”), West Frisian lichem (“body”), Dutch lichaam (“body”), German Leichnam (“body, corpse”), Danish legeme (“body”), Swedish lekamen (“body”), Icelandic líkami (“body”).

Questions about licham

What does licham mean?
Licham means the human body, especially when living.
What part of speech is licham?
Licham is a noun.
How do you pronounce licham?
Licham is pronounced /ˈlɪt͡ʃəm/.

Words near licham in the dictionary

  1. lich-king
  2. lich-lord
  3. lich-wake
  4. lich-wakes
  5. lich-way
  6. licham
  7. lichanoi
  8. lichanos
  9. lichdom
  10. lichee
  11. lichees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: licham (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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