life
a characteristic state or mode of living
How often you will meet it
Rank 125 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 198,943 times across 139,755 chapters — 0.095% of every word in the library.
It belongs to the first 500 words, the band worth learning before any other.
What it means
noun
- a characteristic state or mode of living social lifecity life
- the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities also: living 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 Australiahe wanted to live his own life without interference from others
- the condition of living or the state of being alive also: animation, living, aliveness while there's life there's hopelife depends on many chemical and physical processes
- the period during which something is functional (as between birth and death) also: lifetime, life-time, lifespan the battery had a short lifehe lived a long and happy life
- the period between birth and the present time I have known him all his life
life in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · Oscar Wilde · Chapter 1
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Then she saw the little statue come slowly back to quivering life.
The Heart of the Hills · John, Jr. Fox · Chapter 1
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Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings.
The White Christmas and other Merry · Walter Ben Hare · Chapter 1
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For many years he had been living hand and glove with life and death.
The Betrayal · E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim · Chapter 1
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One looks at the smooth faces of boys of twenty and wonders what the sculptor Life is going to make of them.
The Courage of the Commonplace · Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews · Chapter 1