Lived, meaning “having a certain kind or extent of life,” is not derived from the preterit and past participle of the verb live , but from the noun life , to which the suffix -ed has been added. The original pronunciation, therefore, and one still heard, is , 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 in such combinations as long-lived and short-lived. Both pronunciations are considered standard.
A Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at life, -ed 3
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And in 2022, health investigators uncovered the likely source of 17 Legionella infections in Napa County — all of whom either lived, worked or had visited downtown Napa.
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026
To qualify, you must have owned and lived in the home as your main residence for at least two of the five years prior to the sale.
From MarketWatch • May 18, 2026
Invites were also sent out to all the people that lived in the home and their families who attended in wedding attire.
From BBC • May 18, 2026
The fossil, which comes from a plated dinosaur that lived about 150 million years ago, is also helping researchers propose a new explanation for how stegosaurs evolved and spread across the world.
From Science Daily • May 17, 2026
“I thought he was . . . different. Not so traditional. He’s lived here for twenty-five years! How has he changed so little in all that time?”
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Definitions 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.
