bodily

bodily — adjective

1. connected with a person's body, especially when talking about health, injury, or

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

connected with a person's body, especially when talking about health, injury, or basic physical processes.

Example

Dr. Singh checked the boxer for signs of bodily harm.

bodily harm

The nurse explained how heat affects basic bodily functions.

bodily functions

Common collocations
  • bodily harm
  • bodily injury
  • bodily functions
  • bodily pain
  • bodily needs
Synonyms
  • physical

    the broad everyday word, used in many more situations than 'bodily'

  • corporal

    more formal and mainly used in legal, religious, or historical contexts

  • anatomical

    technical, used especially for body structure in medicine or biology

Antonyms
  • mental

    connected with the mind rather than the body

  • spiritual

    connected with the spirit or religious life rather than the body

Grammar Patterns

bodily + harm

bodily + injury

bodily + functions

Usage Note

Usually appears before nouns rather than after 'be'. Common noun partners include 'harm', 'injury', 'functions', and 'needs'.

Common Mistakes

The accident caused body injury.
The accident caused bodily injury.
before nouns like 'injury' and 'harm', English usually uses the adjective 'bodily', not the noun 'body'.
The doctor checked her bodily.
The doctor checked her body.' or 'The doctor checked her bodily functions.
'bodily' describes a noun; it is not a noun by itself.

bodily — adverb

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

For adjective/1, bodily is a fairly formal word for things connected with the human body, especially in fixed phrases such as bodily harm, bodily injury, and bodily functions. Physical is much broader and more common in daily English: it can describe the body, exercise, real objects, or force. Corporal is narrower and more formal, often heard in legal, religious, or historical settings. Anatomical is technical and mainly used in medicine or biology when talking about body structure. In ordinary speech, physical is usually the safest choice, but bodily sounds more natural in legal or medical-style collocations. We say bodily injury, but usually physical exercise, not bodily exercise.

physical ↗corporalanatomical

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Bodily was formed in English from body and the ending -ly. In Middle English, it first described things connected with the body. From that base meaning, English also developed adverb uses for moving a whole person physically and for being present in person. The word still has a somewhat formal tone in many set phrases, especially bodily harm and bodily injury.