Meaning & use
life
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountablebiology
The condition of being alive, shown by growing, reacting to surroundings, and reproducing, that separates living things from dead matter.
Grammar: Used without a when talking in general: life on Earth.
Patterns
- life on Earth
- signs of life
Scientists search for signs of life on other planets.
Life began in the oceans billions of years ago.
The doctor checked the baby for any sign of life.
nouncountable or uncountable
The period from birth to death, or the way someone spends it.
Grammar: Plural lives; use a when describing a particular one: a long life.
Patterns
- spend your life doing something
- save someone's life
She spent her life helping animals.
He led a quiet life in the country.
The lifeguard saved a child's life.
nouncountable or uncountable
The activities, experiences, and interests that make up a person's existence or an area of living.
Grammar: Often with a modifier: work life, social life.
Patterns
- life as something
- life in a place
City life suits her better than country life.
He keeps his work life separate from his private life.
Life as a student is busy.
nounsingularinformallegal
A prison sentence lasting until death, or for a very long time.
Grammar: Informal short form of life imprisonment: he got life.
Patterns
- serve life
- get life
The judge gave the robber life.
He is serving life for murder.
She received life, but was released after thirty years.
noununcountable
Energy, liveliness, or spirit in a person or place.
Grammar: Often with full of or bring: full of life.
Patterns
- full of life
- bring something to life
The puppy was full of life.
Music brought the dull party to life.
The old town comes alive with life each summer.
Word forms
| plural | lives |
|---|
Common combinations
- everyday life
- Phones are part of everyday life now.
- save a life
- First aid can save a life.
- quality of life
- Exercise improves quality of life.
- real life
- In real life, he is quite shy.
- life expectancy
- Life expectancy has risen over the last century.
- bring to life
- The actor brought the character to life.
Synonyms and how they differ
- existence
- Existence is a more philosophical word for simply being, while life suggests the experience of being alive.
- lifetime
- Lifetime means the period someone is alive, narrower than life.
- vitality
- Vitality describes energy and liveliness, matching only the last sense of life.
- being
- Being is an abstract word for a living thing or state of existing, more formal than life.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: life or live? life or lives?
life vs live
Live as a verb rhymes with give and means to be alive or reside, while the noun life rhymes with knife.
life vs lives
Lives pronounced to rhyme with knives is the plural of life, while lives rhyming with gives is the verb.
Practice
What is the plural of the noun life?
Choose one answer.
Nouns ending in -fe often change to -ves, so life becomes lives. Lifes is not standard, and life's is a possessive or contraction.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “life”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.