carnal

1. 1.

   marked by the appetites and passions of the body

   “animal instincts”

   “carnal knowledge”

   “fleshly desire”

   “a sensual delight in eating”

   “music is the only sensual pleasure without vice”

   Synonymsanimalfleshlysensual

   Similarphysical
2. 2.

   of or relating to the body or flesh

   “carnal remains”

Other forms of carnal

comparative

carnaller·

superlative

carnallest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about carnal

What does carnal mean?

carnal means "marked by the appetites and passions of the body". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in carnal?

carnal has 2 syllables: car-nal. The stress falls on "car". In IPA it is /ˈkɑɹnəl/.

What is another word for carnal?

Close synonyms include animal, fleshly, sensual. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is carnal a common word?

carnal is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.