living
the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities
How often you will meet it
Rank 581 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 33,390 times across 191,625 chapters — 0.016% 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
- the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities also: life he could no longer cope with the complexities of life
- people who are still living save your pity for the living
- the condition of living or the state of being alive also: animation, life, aliveness while there's life there's hopelife depends on many chemical and physical processes
- the financial means whereby one lives also: support, keep, livelihood, bread and butter, sustenance each child was expected to pay for their keephe applied to the state for support
adjective
- pertaining to living persons within living memory
- true to life; lifelike the living image of her mother
- (informal) absolute she is a living dollscared the living daylights out of them
- still in existence also: surviving the Wollemi pine found in Australia is a surviving specimen of a conifer thought to have been long extinct and therefore known as a living fossilthe only surviving frontier blockhouse in Pennsylvania
living 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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And she, in the far-off city, going though the motions of living.
The Courage of the Commonplace · Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews · 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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Get him on that topic, and he was one of the most eloquent men living.
The Crown of Life · George Gissing · Chapter 1
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He was not above twelve years old, fair, blue-eyed, and kind in temper to every living thing.
Famous Stories Every Child Should Know · Hamilton Wright [Editor] Mabie · Chapter 1
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Their wants are provided for while living, and after their death friends are advised by dreams to go and bury them.
The Dream · Émile Zola · Chapter 1