Latin dictionary · noun
animus
life, life force, soul, vitality (that life-giving aspect which animates a thing)
Dictionary forms: animus, animī
Inflection: second declension
Meaning and definitions
- life, life force, soul, vitality (that life-giving aspect which animates a thing)
- conscience, intellect, mind, reason, sensibility, understanding (the intellectual dimension of the human mind in general; the seat of the rational and other thoughts a person experiences)
- heart, mind, spirit (the affective dimension of the human mind in general; the seat of the emotions and feelings a person experiences)
- affect, emotion, feeling, impulse, passion (the essence of that which is situated within the affective mind)
- certain particular emotional aspects of one's affective makeup: affection; aggression; courage; pride; will (“firmity or fixity of purpose”), determination, firmness, resoluteness, resolve; wrath, anger, ire
- motive, motivation, reason (any intellectually or emotionally based incentive to act in a particular manner)
Connected roots
- anim-
mind, spirit, breath
Explore the word family
These words share a recorded root connection. A shared root is a learning clue; it does not establish every step in a word’s history.
- animate
to bring to life; to give motion to
- animism
A belief that spirits inhabit some or all classes of natural objects or phenomena.
Recorded forms
| Form | Grammar |
|---|---|
| animus | nom. sg. |
| animī | nom. pl. |
| animī | gen. sg. |
| animōrum | gen. pl. |
| animō | dat. sg. |
| animīs | dat. pl. |
| animum | acc. sg. |
| animōs | acc. pl. |
| animō | abl. sg. |
| animīs | abl. pl. |
| anime | voc. sg. |
| animī | voc. pl. |
| animī | loc. sg. |
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Source: Wiktionary entry and revision history. Dictionary text is adapted from Wiktionary under CC BY-SA 4.0. Definitions are selected and reformatted; root links are curated by Word Radicals. Read about sources and limitations.