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• c'est la vie
  c'est la vie

  that's life; such is life.
• C'est la vie
  C'est la vie

  An expression used to play down some minor disappointment: “So we lost a softball game by twenty-two runs. What can you do; c'est la vie.” From French, meaning “that's life.”

c'est la vie

American  

[se la vee] / sɛ la ˈvi /

French.

1. that's life; such is life.

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c'est la vie British  

/ sɛ la vi /

1. that's life

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C'est la vie Cultural  

1. An expression used to play down some minor disappointment: “So we lost a softball game by twenty-two runs. What can you do; c'est la vie.” From French, meaning “that's life.”

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Example Sentences

Guillermo del Toro’s almost realized “The Rise and Fall of Jabba the Hutt” was scrapped, but the filmmaker is saying c’est la vie.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 9, 2023

I understand, though, that it would have made the bike pricier, so c’est la vie.

From The Verge • Jan. 2, 2020

There was little other action on the Senate floor as the hours passed, even as the Assembly chugged along with various minor bills and a vague sense of c’est la vie.

From New York Times • Jun. 21, 2018

Beautiful hair came at a price, but I figured a scalp dotted with blisters was mine: c’est la vie.

From The Guardian • Feb. 4, 2017

To Philip it seemed crude and stupid; the naive obscenity—c'est la vie, mon cher, c'est la vie, he cried—the naive obscenity served only to emphasise the conventionality of the anecdote.

From Of Human Bondage by Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)