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LIFE (lives)
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Dictionary entry overview: What does life mean?
• LIFE (noun)
The noun LIFE has 14 senses:
1. a characteristic state or mode of living
2. the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities
3. the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living
4. the condition of living or the state of being alive
5. the period during which something is functional (as between birth and death)
6. the period between birth and the present time
7. the period from the present until death
8. a living person
9. animation and energy in action or expression
10. living things collectively
11. the organic phenomenon that distinguishes living organisms from nonliving ones
12. an account of the series of events making up a person's life
13. a motive for living
14. a prison term lasting as long as the prisoner lives
Familiarity information: LIFE used as a noun is familiar.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A characteristic state or mode of living
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Context example:
real life
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
being; beingness; existence; face of the earth (the state or fact of existing)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "life"):
ghetto (any segregated mode of living or working that results from bias or stereotyping)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Synonyms:
life; living
Context example:
he could no longer cope with the complexities of life
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
experience (the content of direct observation or participation in an event)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Context example:
he is trying to rebuild his life
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
being; beingness; existence; face of the earth (the state or fact of existing)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The condition of living or the state of being alive
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
aliveness; animation; life; living
Context example:
life depends on many chemical and physical processes
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
being; beingness; existence; face of the earth (the state or fact of existing)
Attribute:
dead (no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "life"):
eternal life; life eternal (life without beginning or end)
skin (a person's skin regarded as their life)
endurance; survival (a state of surviving; remaining alive)
Derivation:
lifer (a prisoner serving a term of life imprisonment)
Sense 5
Meaning:
The period during which something is functional (as between birth and death)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Synonyms:
life; life-time; lifespan; lifetime
Context example:
he lived a long and happy life
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)
Meronyms (parts of "life"):
birth (the time when something begins (especially life))
death; demise; dying (the time when something ends)
time of life (a period of time during which a person is normally in a particular life state)
age; eld (a time of life (usually defined in years) at which some particular qualification or power arises)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "life"):
afterlife; hereafter (life after death)
Derivation:
lifer (a prisoner serving a term of life imprisonment)
Sense 6
Meaning:
The period between birth and the present time
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Context example:
I have known him all his life
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)
Meronyms (parts of "life"):
past (a earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they have reason to keep secret))
Sense 7
Meaning:
The period from the present until death
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Context example:
he appointed himself emperor for life
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "life"):
days; years (the time during which someone's life continues)
Derivation:
lifer (a prisoner serving a term of life imprisonment)
Sense 8
Meaning:
A living person
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Context example:
his heroism saved a life
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)
Sense 9
Meaning:
Animation and energy in action or expression
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Synonyms:
life; liveliness; spirit; sprightliness
Context example:
it was a heavy play and the actors tried in vain to give life to it
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
animation; brio; invigoration; spiritedness; vivification (quality of being active or spirited or alive and vigorous)
Attribute:
lively (full of life and energy)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "life"):
pertness (quality of being lively and confident)
airiness; delicacy (lightness in movement or manner)
alacrity; briskness; smartness (liveliness and eagerness)
energy; muscularity; vigor; vigour; vim (an imaginative lively style (especially style of writing))
elan (enthusiastic and assured vigor and liveliness)
esprit (liveliness of mind or spirit)
breeziness; jauntiness (a breezy liveliness)
buoyancy; irrepressibility (irrepressible liveliness and good spirit)
high-spiritedness (exuberant liveliness)
ebullience; enthusiasm; exuberance (overflowing with eager enjoyment or approval)
ginger; pep; peppiness (liveliness and energy)
Sense 10
Meaning:
Living things collectively
Classified under:
Nouns with no superordinates
Context example:
the oceans are teeming with life
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
animate thing; living thing (a living (or once living) entity)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "life"):
wildlife (all living things (except people) that are undomesticated)
Sense 11
Meaning:
The organic phenomenon that distinguishes living organisms from nonliving ones
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural phenomena
Context example:
there is no life on the moon
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
organic phenomenon ((biology) a natural phenomenon involving living plants and animals)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "life"):
biology (characteristic life processes and phenomena of living organisms)
aerobiosis (life sustained in the presence of air or oxygen)
Sense 12
Meaning:
An account of the series of events making up a person's life
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Synonyms:
biography; life; life history; life story
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
account; chronicle; history; story (a record or narrative description of past events)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "life"):
autobiography (a biography of yourself)
profile (biographical sketch)
hagiography (a biography that idealizes or idolizes the person (especially a person who is a saint))
Instance hyponyms:
Parallel Lives (a collection of biographies of famous pairs of Greeks and Romans written by Plutarch; used by Shakespeare in writing some of his plays)
Sense 13
Meaning:
A motive for living
Classified under:
Nouns denoting goals
Context example:
pottery was his life
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
motivation; motive; need (the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior)
Sense 14
Meaning:
A prison term lasting as long as the prisoner lives
Classified under:
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations
Synonyms:
life; life sentence
Context example:
he got life for killing the guard
Hypernyms ("life" is a kind of...):
prison term; sentence; time (the period of time a prisoner is imprisoned)
Derivation:
lifer (a prisoner serving a term of life imprisonment)
Context examples
Eight years! you must be tenacious of life.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
How many of us begin a new record with each day of our lives?
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Before him was meat and life.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Even in my short life I had learned as much as that—or had inherited it in that race memory which we call instinct.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The period during which a medical product retains its properties and stated performance within specified limits throughout its shelf life if stored under defined conditions.
(Medical Product Shelf Life, NCI Thesaurus)
For the life of me I could not think what it might be.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of downgoing men.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
He had starved for love all his life.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
What a launch in life I think it now, on looking back, to be so mean and servile to a man of such parts and pretensions!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The time period in a child's life that is generally defined as between 5 and 10 years of life.
(Middle Childhood, NCI Thesaurus)
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