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.
I’m a woman who’s lived a lot and have a lot more that I want to live.
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026
“My sisters live here, and my family all lived within three hours, and I just decided to start phase two.”
From MarketWatch • May 18, 2026
The middle class was once largely invisible to those above it—they lived in different neighborhoods and moved in different worlds.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026
Coll – who lived alone with her dog Lola - was on benefits at the time.
From BBC • May 18, 2026
Upstairs on Tante Jans’s tall mahogany chair sat the lady who ran the rooming house where Otto lived.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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.
