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Added 9 October 2026

incarnate

/ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/ adjective

Latin root: incarnātus First recorded: 1395 Wiktionary

adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about incarnate at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified.
Flesh-colored; crimson.

verb

To embody in flesh; to invest with a bodily, especially a human, form.
To gain full existence (bodily or otherwise).
To incarn; to become covered with flesh; to heal over.

adjective

Not in the flesh; spiritual.

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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