lifeblood

[lahyf-bluhd]

noun

1. the blood, considered as essential to maintain life.

   to spill one's lifeblood in war.

2. a life-giving, vital, or animating element.

   Agriculture is the lifeblood of the country.

lifeblood

/ ˈlaɪfˌblʌd /

noun

1. the blood, considered as vital to sustain life

2. the essential or animating force

Word History and Origins

Origin of lifeblood¹

First recorded in 1580–90; life + blood

Example Sentences

That kind of rebound matters: When pharma companies’ stocks rise, so does their appetite for acquisitions, which is the lifeblood of biotech.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Chips are the lifeblood of the economy, powering phones, computers and data centers needed to train artificial-intelligence models.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Even with the tweak, the policy effectively shutters the H-1B pipeline that, for three decades, powered the American dream for millions of Indians and, more importantly, supplied the lifeblood of talent to US industries.

Read more on BBC

He wrote: “Let us take care that we allow that tree to grow and blossom as it feeds on the lifeblood of Charles J. Kirk in the years to come.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

"This is injecting the government directly into the lifeblood of a major corporation's decision making."

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• aspect 
• basis 
• bottom line 
• character 
• core 
• crux 
• element 
• meaning 
• nature 
• principle 
• quality 
• reality 
• root 
• soul 
• spirit 
• structure 
• substance