lives
plural of “life” — a characteristic state or mode of living
An inflected form of life · plural.
How often you will meet it
Rank 821 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 22,071 times across 155,370 chapters — 0.010% of every word in the library.
It belongs to the first 1,000 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
lives 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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One lives there simply for it, and only by it.
The Dream · Émile Zola · Chapter 1
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Alas! she was speedily swamped, and the crew were compelled to swim for their lives.
Sketches by Seymour — Volume 04 · Robert Seymour · Chapter 1
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Happy it was for us, when, upon the signal given, they ventured out their boats to save our lives.
The Life and Most Surprising Adventures · Daniel Defoe · Chapter 1
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Each class would have preached the importance of those virtues, for whose exercise there was no necessity in their own lives.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · Oscar Wilde · Chapter 1
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It was the oft-repeated, incredible story of men so accustomed to danger that they throw away their lives in sheer carelessness.
The Courage of the Commonplace · Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews · Chapter 1