These words refer to matter or the body as distinguished from mind or spirit. Physical sums up the whole range of possibilities in these words, some aspects of which each succeeding word concentrates on to the exclusion of others. It can refer to the matter and energy of the universe and the science that treats it: the physical sciences. Anything apparent to the senses can be described by the word: the physical remains of a vanished culture. It can refer also to the body: physical beauty; a physical defect. Or it can distinguish the body from the mind: tests to determine whether the heart pains were physical or psychological in origin. In dualistic philosophy, the word contrasts with spiritual: rejecting physical attachments for enduring spiritual values. Most concretely, if somewhat euphemistically, the word can refer to sexuality: physical love.

Corporeal more clearly contrasts with the spiritual or immaterial than physical: positing a spiritual basis underlying all corporeal things. It can also refer to anything organized into an entity: the corporeal law. Material is a less scholarly sounding term than corporeal in its reference to matter or to physical objects: the material universe; his material possessions. The word is often used to distinguish object-oriented values from more idealistic ones: the material greed fostered by advertising. Corporal now refers exclusively to the body, intensifying the negative possibilities of physical in this sense by emphasizing most often what is applied to or inflicted on the body: corporal punishment. Beyond this stock phrase, in fact, the word is less often used than the more direct bodily . The latter can be neutral in itself: or it can be opposed to the mental or spiritual: bodily sensations carried to the brain; those bodily appetites that are considered sinful. Related to the last possibility, bodily can refer specifically to sensual or sexual pleasures, possibility, bodily can refer specifically to sensual or sexual pleasure, possibly in disapproving way, although this use may now sound old-fashioned: bodily desire.

Fleshly and carnal both concentrate on this last implication of bodily , fleshly appearing in a religious context and carnal most often in legal terminology. Fleshly can sound even more old-fashioned than bodily : fleshly dissipations. One use of carnal is so familiar as to have reduced its use in other ways; this refers specifically to sexual intercourse in the phrase "carnal knowledge." Where it once could refer simply to sensual or bodily appetite, this now might be misunderstood as explicitly indicating the sexual: a carnal licentiousness that characterized Venetian society. Fleshy is useful as a neutral designation for soft bodily tissue as opposed to bone and sinew: wounded in the fleshy part of his upper arm. The word can even refer to flabby muscle or fat tissues: his torso having grown noticeably fleshy over the years. Although much more formal and technical, mesomorphic relates to fleshy in referring to a body in which muscular tissue has been favoured by development over nervous and digestive tissue: neurasthenic, pyknic and mesomorphic body types. More loosely, as a fad word, mesomorphic can refer merely to a substantially developed muscularity: a do-or-die mesomorphic platoon sergeant.