vitality
Americannoun
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vitalities
plural
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exuberant physical strength or mental vigor.
a person of great vitality.
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capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence.
the vitality of an institution.
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power to live or grow.
the vitality of a language.
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vital force or principle.
noun
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physical or mental vigour, energy, etc
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the power or ability to continue in existence, live, or grow
the vitality of a movement
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a less common name for vital force
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of vitality
First recorded in 1585–95; from Latin vītālitās, from vītāli(s) vital + -tās -ty 2
Explanation
Are you full of life? Vigorous and energetic? Lucky you. You have vitality, the state of being strong and in great health. Vitality also has the general meaning of "life force," as in the mysterious power that separates the living from the dead. The phrase "vital organs" comes from vitality, meaning a person's inner organs most essential to life. Abstract things can also have vitality, as in "the vitality of the state" or the vitality of Broadway Theater."
Vocabulary lists containing vitality
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Grade 9, List 5
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "V"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Grief, in Mr. Wladyka’s view, has a way of defining us, of turning our attention to the past, of casting a shade over everything and denying us forward movement and vitality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
"We believe growth is progress – leading to vitality, expansion of life, increasing knowledge, higher well being," he wrote.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
It also gave him time to get to know his new players, each of whom have been summarily stunned by their veteran coach’s vitality.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
Democracy is the heart of our nation’s constitutional regime, and its health underwrites the Constitution’s own vitality.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026
The psychologist felt drained of vitality when she was finished.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
Though the vitalities of D.C., the commercial real estate market and local businesses are important, the editorial’s rationale for determining the balance between at-home and in-office work for federal employees was misplaced.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2023
Jonas’s protagonist looks on her world with an eye alive to both the comic excesses and the enviable vitalities of her students.
From New York Times ● May 13, 2022
He seeks to lose himself "in some aspect of the world's vitalities."
From Time Magazine Archive
I don't want you to get the impression that Shuttered Doors is precisely arid; it is too full of ideas and vitalities for that; but it does undoubtedly demand a special kind of reader.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-02-25 by Various
Life manifests in these neurotics in the form of vivacities merely; not as vitalities.
From Feminism and Sex-Extinction by Arabella Kenealy
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
