live
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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lives,
present (3rd person singular)
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lived,
past participle, past
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living
present participle
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to have life, as an organism; be alive; be capable of vital functions.
all things that live.
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to continue to have life; remain alive.
to live to a ripe old age.
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to continue in existence, operation, memory, etc.; last.
a book that lives in my memory.
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to maintain or support one's existence; provide for oneself.
to live on one's income.
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to feed or subsist (usually followed by on orupon ).
to live on rice and bananas.
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to dwell or reside (usually followed by in, at, etc.).
to live in a cottage.
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to pass life in a specified manner.
They lived happily ever after.
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to direct or regulate one's life.
to live by the golden rule.
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to experience or enjoy to the full.
At 40 she was just beginning to live.
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to cohabit (usually followed bywith ).
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to escape destruction or remain afloat, as a ship or aircraft.
verb (used with object)
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lives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lived,
past participle, past
-
living
present participle
-
to pass (life).
to live a life of ease.
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to practice, represent, or exhibit in one's life.
to live one's philosophy.
verb phrase
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live up to to live in accordance with (expectations or an ideal or standard); measure up to.
He never lived up to his father's vision of him.
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live down to live so as to allow (a mistake, disgrace, etc.) to be forgotten or forgiven.
She'll never live that crucial moment of failure down.
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live in / out to reside at or away from the place of one's employment, especially as a domestic servant.
Their butler lives in, but the maids live out.
idioms
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live high off / on the hog. hog.
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live well, to live comfortably.
They're not wealthy but they live well.
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live it up, to live in an extravagant or wild manner; pursue pleasure.
He started living it up after he got out of the army.
adjective
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It was the little gir's first time seeing live farm animals.
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of, relating to, or during the life of a living being.
Water forms about 50 to 80 percent of an animal's live weight.
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characterized by or indicating the presence of living creatures.
I stood still and listened to the live sounds of the forest.
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Informal. (of a person) energetic and quick to speak or act; animated, spirited, or vivacious.
The club members are a really live bunch.
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responsive to changing conditions, needs, etc., in an imaginative and proactive way.
I like this company—their approach is live and fresh.
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Informal. mentally, emotionally, and physically alive, often in a new way; invigorated, confident, and fully engaged.
After months of quarantine, I felt live and refreshed being exposed to places outside.
During pregame practice we were feeling live and ready for anything.
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made up of actual persons.
He has several studio albums but rarely performs before a live audience.
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(of a radio or television program, podcast, etc.) broadcast or released while happening or being performed; not prerecorded or taped.
I watched a live telecast of the royal wedding.
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burning or glowing.
We roasted our marshmallows over live coals in the firepit.
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being in play, as a baseball or football.
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(of ammunition)
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loaded or unexploded; ready to explode.
Watch out—that’s a live grenade!
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consisting of real bullets or shot, as opposed to rubber bullets or some other charge; explodable.
Security forces used tear gas and live ammunition to break up the riot.
-
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of current interest or importance, as a question or issue; generating much debate or discussion.
Sexual harassment in the military is still very much a live issue.
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Also alive electrically charged; carrying an electric current, especially if exposed.
Crews safely removed the live wire brought down by a falling tree.
On the subway line, the third rail is live.
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being highly resonant or reverberant, as an auditorium or concert hall.
Plants can absorb the echoes in acoustically live spaces like galleries and gymnasiums.
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having resilience or bounce.
The basketball was losing air rapidly and was barely live by the end of the game.
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moving or imparting motion; powered.
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vivid or bright, as color.
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still in use, or to be used, as type set up or copy for printing.
adverb
idioms
adjective
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(prenominal) showing the characteristics of life
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(usually prenominal) of, relating to, or abounding in life
the live weight of an animal
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(usually prenominal) of current interest; controversial
a live issue
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actual
a real live cowboy
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informal full of life and energy
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(of a coal, ember, etc) glowing or burning
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(esp of a volcano) not extinct
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loaded or capable of exploding
a live bomb
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radio television transmitted or present at the time of performance, rather than being a recording
a live show
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recorded in concert
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recorded in one studio take, without overdubs or splicing
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connected to a source of electric power
a live circuit
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(esp of a colour or tone) brilliant or splendid
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acoustically reverberant
a live studio
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sport (of a ball) in play
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(of rocks, ores, etc) not quarried or mined; native
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being in a state of motion or transmitting power; positively connected to a driving member
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printing
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(of copy) not yet having been set into type
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(of type that has been set) still in use
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adverb
verb
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to show the characteristics of life; be alive
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to remain alive or in existence
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to exist in a specified way
to live poorly
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to reside or dwell
to live in London
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(often foll by on) to continue or last
the pain still lives in her memory
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(usually foll by by) to order one's life (according to a certain philosophy, religion, etc)
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to support one's style of life; subsist
to live by writing
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(foll by with) to endure the effects (of a crime, mistake, etc)
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(foll by through) to experience and survive
he lived through the war
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(tr) to pass or spend (one's life, etc)
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to enjoy life to the full
he knows how to live
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(tr) to put into practice in one's daily life; express
he lives religion every day
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to refrain from interfering in others' lives; to be tolerant
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informal in one's sensitive or defenceless position
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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livesimple
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livessimple
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have livedperfect
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has livedperfect
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am livingprogressive
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are livingprogressive
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is livingprogressive
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have been livingperfect progressive
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has been livingperfect progressive
Past
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livedsimple
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had livedperfect
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was livingprogressive
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were livingprogressive
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had been livingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of live1
First recorded before 900; Middle English liven, Old English lifian, libban; cognate with Dutch leven, German leben, Old Norse lifa, Gothic liban
Origin of live2
First recorded in 1535–45; in 1930–35 live 2 for def. 8; shortened variant of alive, used attributively
Explanation
The verb live means remain alive. If you hope to live until you're 100, start eating vegetables. When live rhymes with give, it's a verb that has to do with existing — being or staying alive, or making your home in a particular place, like when you say, "I live on the planet Earth for the time being." When live rhymes with hive, it is an entirely different word with a very similar meaning, an adjective that means "not dead", or "living". So you could describe your two pet fish by saying, "The one on the left, floating upside down, is the dead fish, and the one on the right is the live fish."
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:
Part diary, part ethnography, part nature journal, “Eva and the Island” offers an extraordinary glimpse into what it takes to live in one of the most challenging environments on earth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Having seen non-Indigenous filmmakers come to the Arctic and offer little in return, the Inuit co-creators, who both live in Nunavut, were determined to give back to their community.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
The graveyard is in the fictional town of Bellewood, Conn., where Jake, his long-suffering wife, Mattie, and their two children live, having recently left California.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
That means magic shows in a mystical basement, karaoke in a lavish tiki bar, and live immersive theater parties in the main room, like its Halloween weekend event “The Dark Weekend.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
“Cities like Washington and Baltimore, a lot of people live in apartments. It’s major that we can eliminate them from consideration.”
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Those infected during infancy are particularly likely to develop chronic infections, which kill up to 25% of people, mostly through liver failure or liver cancer, according to data published in 2020.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
Around 71,000 people in England are diagnosed each year with pancreatic, stomach, liver, ovarian or bowel cancer, and nearly 35,000 die from these diseases.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
The aim is to detect hard-to-diagnose abdominal cancers, including liver, ovarian and pancreatic cancer, much sooner.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
Scientists have discovered that restoring the function of aging liver cells can dramatically reduce harmful substances in the bloodstream, raising the possibility of treating diseases that affect organs far beyond the liver itself.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 3, 2026
When I was done, he looked so handsome and smelled so good that Bertha kept making a fuss over him and running back into the house to get him another chicken liver.
From "Wish" by Barbara O'Connor
But Cult is assaying the livest of stories.
From Time ● Sep. 5, 2017
It was just about the livest and jumpin'est opera yet turned out by a young composer in the U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her late-night calls to reporters once made her phone line the livest wire in Washington.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I'm the livest, kickingest person you ever saw," he fumed.
From Time Magazine Archive
And thou livest in a cell under the convent eaves opposite my window.
From Sister Dolorosa and Posthumous Fame by James Lane Allen
Zipline got its start delivering blood and medical supplies in Africa, a business the company says helps save more than 14,000 lives a year and is growing faster than ever.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
It may be lines of poetry or prose she quotes in the book, or passages from others’ or her own essays that will resonate with readers seeking reconnection with what’s most important in their lives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
“Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab,” Cybertruck’s lead engineer Wes Morrill wrote in a response to Musk’s post on X.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
The experience helped shape a political career dedicated to improving the lives of working families, particularly coal miners, veterans and children.
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026
That in itself was unusual in our orderly lives.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
We’ve also lived through a version of this before.
From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2026
San Portablo, co-owned by Locke, said the TV star was an "absolute Welsh treasure" who "lived an incredible life".
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
For the past 15 years, he has lived primarily off the app’s revenue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
This was potentially problematic because that’s where he lived and had for years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
I knew that people lived like this, but even in San Francisco, everyone I knew had lived in the tenements or in the back of the family business.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
In an October poll conducted for Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, 34% of respondents named the economy and cost of living as the most important issues influencing their vote, compared with 32% for national security.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
"It's like we're living in a country on autopilot," Nicky Fahrizal, a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Indonesia, told BBC Indonesian.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
That result may be especially important because women account for nearly two-thirds of people living with Alzheimer's disease.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
But he asserted that he was already working with legislative counterparts on how to provide critical services and lower the cost of living.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
I groped my way through the kitchen to the living room with the dark wall paneling.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
