body

Reading level: easy

Estimated CEFR level: A1 — Beginner

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun the entire structure of an organism (an animal, plant, or human being)
  2. noun a group of persons associated by some common tie or occupation and regarded as an entity
  3. noun a natural object consisting of a dead animal or person

Etymology

From Middle English body, bodi, bodiȝ, from Old English bodiġ, bodeġ (“body, trunk, chest, torso, height, stature”), from Proto-West Germanic *bodag (“body, trunk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- (“to be awake, observe”). Cognate with Old High German botah (“body, corpse, trunk, torso”) (whence Swabian Bottich (“body, torso”), Bavarian Bottich (“body, torso, carcass; lower part of a shirt or jacket”)).

In classic literature

Synonyms

organic structure, physical structure

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