carnal

From Middle English, from Latin carnālis (“fleshly, of the flesh”), from carō (“flesh”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑɹnəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)nəl

carnal (comparative more carnal, superlative most carnal)

1. Relating to the physical and especially sexual appetites or activities.
   • 1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 29:

     At the town of Mendes, in the principal temple, there was a living male goat, with which, if the statement of Herodotus is to be accepted, naked female worshippers actually had carnal intercourse.

2. Worldly or earthly; temporal.
3. Of or relating to the body or flesh.

• incarnate
• incarnation
• reincarnate
• reincarnation

• “carnal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “carnal”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Borrowed from Latin carnālis.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [kərˈnal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [kaɾˈnal]

carnal m or f (masculine and feminine plural carnals)

1. carnal (relating to the physical, especially sexual, appetites)
2. consanguineous (descending from the same ancestor)

   germà carnal

   blood brother

• carn
• carnalitat

• “carnal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “carnal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “carnal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “carnal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): /karˈnal/
• Rhymes: -al

carnal

1. carnal

From Old Galician-Portuguese carnal, from Latin carnālis (“of the flesh”), from carō (“flesh”). By surface analysis, carne +‎ -al.

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: car‧nal

carnal m or f (plural carnais)

1. carnal (relating to the physical, especially sexual, appetites)
2. (religion) carnal; earthly; worldly (concerned with human matters)

   Synonym: terreno

   Antonym: espiritual

3. consanguineous (descending from the same ancestor)

   Synonym: consanguíneo

   irmão carnal ― blood brother.

• carnalmente

• carnalidade
• carnalizar
• carne

Borrowed from Latin carnalis. By surface analysis, carne +‎ -al.

carnal m or n (feminine singular carnală, masculine plural carnali, feminine and neuter plural carnale)

1. fleshly
2. carnal

Borrowed from Latin carnālis (“fleshly, of the flesh”), from carō (“flesh”).

• IPA^(key): /kaɾˈnal/ [kaɾˈnal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: car‧nal

carnal m or f (masculine and feminine plural carnales)

1. carnal (relating to the physical, especially sexual, appetites)

   Synonyms: sexual, libidinoso

2. consanguineous, by blood (related through birth)

   Synonym: consanguíneo

   • 1962, Julio Cortázar, “Simulacros”, in Historias de cronopios y de famas:

     Por ejemplo, el patíbulo, hasta hoy nadie se ha puesto de acuerdo sobre el origen de la idea, mi hermana la quinta afirma que fue uno de mis primos carnales, que son muy filósofos, pero mi tío el mayor sostiene que se le ocurió a él después de leer una novela de capa y espada.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

carnal m (plural carnales, feminine carnala, feminine plural carnalas)

1. (Mexico) ellipsis of hermano carnal (“brother by blood”); brother (in opposition to adopted or in-law)

• “carnal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024