life
Forms
- Plural
- lives
- present (v1)
- life
- past (v2)
- lifed
- past participle (v3)
- lifed
- present participle
- lifing
- 3rd person singular
- lifes
Definitions
1.The state of organisms preceding their death, characterized by biological processes such as metabolism and reproduction and distinguishing them from inanimate objects; the state of being alive and living.
- I want my kids to live a good life. He gave up on life.
2.The animating principle or force that keeps an inorganic thing or concept metaphorically alive (dynamic, relevant, etc) and makes it a "living document", "living constitution", etc.
- The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.
3.Lifeforms, generally or collectively.
- It's life, but not as we know it. She discovered plant life on the planet. The rover discovered signs of life on the alien world.
4.A living being; the fact of a particular individual being alive. (Chiefly when indicating individuals were lost (died) or saved.)
- Many lives were lost during the war. Her quick thinking saved many dogs' lives.
- One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
1.To replace components whose operational lifetime has expired.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #116
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
Word family
Etymology
From Middle English lyf, from Old English līf, from Proto-West Germanic *līb, from Proto-Germanic *lībą (“life, body”), from *lībaną (“to remain, stay, be left”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick, glue”).