life form

or life-form

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noun

the form that is characteristic of a particular organism at maturity.

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Origin of life form

First recorded in 1850–55

Words nearby life form

life cycle, life estate, life expectancy, life float, life force, life form, lifeful, life-giving, lifeguard, Life Guards, lifehack

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use life form in a sentence

They used something very old—gas-propelled microbes, one of the earliest mobile life forms on Earth—and genetically engineered them to respond to sound waves.
Scientists genetically engineered prehistoric proteins to detect diseases|Claire Maldarelli|August 16, 2021|Popular-Science
Out in the forest, you just have this very strong feeling of the interconnection of all life forms, how every species has a role to play.
Jane Goodall reveals what studying chimpanzees teaches us about human nature|Sigal Samuel|July 23, 2021|Vox
However, that doesn’t mean every life form fights every other life form and the strongest prevails.
Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See - Issue 104: Harmony|Peter Wohlleben|July 21, 2021|Nautilus
The path to greater harmony between all life forms is long and turns on perspective and scientific clarity.
Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See - Issue 104: Harmony|Peter Wohlleben|July 21, 2021|Nautilus

It may be that the way that alien life forms are related to each other is completely different, and so their sociality may be completely different as well.
Why Extraterrestrial Life May Not Seem Entirely Alien|Dan Falk|March 18, 2021|Quanta Magazine
His life as a man is built around health insurance and tax services.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
It was also an attack on our freedom of expression and way of life.
Politicians Only Love Journalists When They're Dead|Luke O’Neil|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The same Pediatrics journal notes that 17 states have some form of exception to the standard parental consent requirement.
Should Teens Have The Right To Die?|Brandy Zadrozny|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
I always wanted my life to be that way, and it became that way.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
I liked it because it was like my life coming back together.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s Greatness|Marlow Stern|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Practise gliding in the form of inflection, or slide, from one extreme of pitch to another.
Expressive Voice Culture|Jessie Eldridge Southwick
The supernaturalist alleges that religion was revealed to man by God, and that the form of this revelation is a sacred book.
God and my Neighbour|Robert Blatchford
Now, it immediately occurred to Davy that he had never in his whole life had all the plums he wanted at any one time.
Davy and The Goblin|Charles E. Carryl
Arches more graceful in form, or better fitted to defy the assaults of time, I have never seen.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
Dean Swift was indeed a misanthrope by theory, however he may have made exception to private life.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift

British Dictionary definitions for life form

life form

noun

biology the characteristic overall form and structure of a mature organism on the basis of which it can be classified

any living creature

(in science fiction) an alien

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