lived

[ lahyvd, livd ]

adjective
  1. having life, a life, or lives, as specified (usually used in combination): a many-lived cat.

Origin of lived

1
A Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at life, -ed3

pronunciation note For lived

Lived, meaning “having a certain kind or extent of life,” is not derived from the preterit and past participle of the verb live [liv], /lɪv/, but from the noun life [lahyf], /laɪf/, to which the suffix -ed has been added. The original pronunciation, therefore, and one still heard, is [lahyvd], /laɪvd/, which retains the vowel (ī) of life. Since the f of life changes to v with the addition of this suffix, as when leaf becomes leaved, this lived is identical in spelling with the preterit and past participle lived, and conflation of the two has led to the increasingly frequent pronunciation of this lived as [livd] /lɪvd/ in such combinations as long-lived and short-lived. Both pronunciations are considered standard.

Other words from lived

  • half-lived, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use lived in a sentence

  • But one thing remained for Felipe now, If Ramona lived, he would find her, and restore to her this her rightful property.

    Ramona | Helen Hunt Jackson
  • At this moment Mrs. Chepstow lived in Isaacson's thought that she looked younger, less faded, and more beautiful.

    Bella Donna | Robert Hichens
  • But before he could even sow that year's crop, he would have to see a certain banker who lived in Nebraska.

    The Homesteader | Oscar Micheaux
  • Blamed ef I'd lived in a country all my life, ef I wouldn't know better'n to git caught out in such weather's this!

    Ramona | Helen Hunt Jackson
  • Prud'hon, in humiliation and despair, lived in a solitude almost complete.

British Dictionary definitions for -lived

-lived

/ (-lɪvd) /


adjective
  1. having or having had a life as specified: short-lived

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012