Loading page
say it: lahyf
life is a noun meaning "a characteristic state or mode of living". It carries 14 recorded senses.
the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities
“he could no longer cope with the complexities of life”
the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living
“he hoped for a new life in Australia”
“he wanted to live his own life without interference from others”
“get a life!”
“he is trying to rebuild his life”
the period during which something is functional (as between birth and death)
“the battery had a short life”
“he lived a long and happy life”
the period between birth and the present time
“I have known him all his life”
the period from the present until death
“he appointed himself emperor for life”
animation and energy in action or expression
“it was a heavy play and the actors tried in vain to give life to it”
the organic phenomenon that distinguishes living organisms from nonliving ones
“there is no life on the moon”
an account of the series of events making up a person's life
a prison term lasting as long as the prisoner lives
“he got life for killing the guard”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for life come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.