Spirit - Definition and Overview

The term spirit has several different uses in different fields.

Religion and spirituality

In the fields of religion and spirituality, the term spirit may mean:

• The soul of an individual person
• A spiritual being, such as a ghost
• The Holy Spirit (also known as the Holy Ghost)
• An ultimate, unified, non-dual awareness or force of life combining or transcending all individual souls or individual units of consciousness; the term spirit has been used in this sense by at least Anthroposophy, Aurobindo, A Course In Miracles, Hegel, Jehovah's Witnesses and Ken Wilber. In this use, the term is conceptually identical to Plotinus's "One" and Friedrich Schelling's "Absolute." Similar to Greek pneuma and Sanskrit akasha.

Other fields

Outside the fields of religion and spirituality, the term spirit may mean:

• Alcohol, or a distilled alcoholic beverage (not wine or beer)
• Breath
• Enthusiasm - "We have spirit, yes we do, we have spirit, how 'bout you?""
• Intent - "The spirit of the law, and not the letter."
• Purpose
• Meaning
• Esprit_de_corps - the commonality of purpose, devotion, and honor among members of a group
• A classical element -- also known as aether, akasha or quintessence -- representing the fifth element (the other four being earth, air, fire and water)
• The B-2 Spirit (official name of the United States Air Force's stealth bomber)
• Spirit Airlines, a Florida-based airline company using McDonnell Douglas DC-9 jets to fly around Florida cities, to the Northeast and Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico
• NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission rover MER-A, named "Spirit"
• 37452 Spirit, an asteroid named after the Mars rover
• The Spirit, a comics series featuring the detective of the same name, by comic artist Will Eisner
• A 1970s psychedelic band: see Spirit (band)
• A Flemish social-democratic political party, forming a cartel with the socialist party SP.a
• Spirit Parser Framework