Meanings
- not comparablePerformed by or pertaining to the psyche (the mind, spirit, or both): mental, psychic.First known use 17th c.
Who could say where the fleshly impulse ceased, or the psychical impulse began?
1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter IV, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 854 more examples
Even more perhaps than other kinds of genius, religious leaders have been subject to abnormal psychical visitations. Invariably they have been creatures of exalted emotional sensibility.
1902, William James, “Lecture I”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC"The physical body has rather been a source of pain and fatigue to us. It is the constant index of our limitations. Why then should we worry about its detachment from our psychical selves?" "If they can indeed be detached," Summerlee grumbled.
1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC"Thus every form, every object, every external phenomenon," says Vignoli, "becomes vivified and animated by the intrinsic consciousness and personal psychical faculty of the animal itself.
1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 8It has been shown that PQQ could be involved in the treatment of neurological and psychical disorders. For example, it was demonstrated to have excellent neuroprotective efficacy in vitro and in vivo models of NMDAR-mediated or other neurotoxicant, such as methylmercury and 6-hydroxydopamine, induced neurotoxicity and electrical responses [4], to reduce the infarct size in animals with hypoxia and ischemia [5], to protect hippocampal neurons from the increase of the intracellular Ca²⁺ level and to be effective in an animal model of epilepsy [6].
2010 October 10, Yanyan Kong et al., “Preparation of 99mTc-PQQ and preliminary biological evaluation for the NMDA receptor”, in Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, volume 287, →DOI, archived from the original on 04 Apr 2025 - not comparablelifestylePertaining to the animal nature of man, as opposed to the spirit.First known use 18th c.
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveoutside the sphere of physical science
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From Ancient Greek ψυχικός (psukhikós) + -al. By surface analysis, psyche + -ical.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish henkinen, psyykkinen
- henkinenpertaining to the mind; mental
- psyykkinenpertaining to the mind; mental
Polish psychiczny, psychiczny
- psychicznypertaining to the mind; mental
- psychicznypertaining to the animal nature of man
- psychicznyoutside the realm of the physical
Cite this entry
psychical. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/psychical
“psychical.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/psychical. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “psychical,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/psychical.
Source: psychical on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.