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View synonyms for survival

survival

[ ser-vahy-vuhl ]

noun

  1. the act or fact of surviving, especially under adverse or unusual circumstances.
  2. a person or thing that survives or endures, especially an ancient custom, observance, belief, or the like.
  3. Anthropology. (no longer in technical use) the persistence of a cultural trait, practice, or the like long after it has lost its original meaning or usefulness.


adjective

  1. of, relating to, or for use in surviving, especially under adverse or unusual circumstances:

    survival techniques.

survival

/ səˈvaɪvəl /

noun

  1. a person or thing that survives, such as a custom
    1. the act or fact of surviving or condition of having survived
    2. ( as modifier )

      survival kit

“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


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Other Words From

  • nonsur·vival noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of survival1

First recorded in 1590–1600; survive + -al 2
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Example Sentences

Realizing that a company whose survival I care about was involved in this craziness made me stop laughing and start thinking.

Lean in to loving relationshipsRight now — while we’re in survival mode — is not the ideal time to try to muddle through problems with complex relationships if you can avoid it.

The ongoing anxieties over soldiers’ survival joined the horror of influenza to produce a flood of conspiracy theories.

For one, the survival rate for younger cancer patients has improved dramatically.

Especially when you’re in survival mode, and just trying to get through it.

From Eater

With chemotherapy, her doctors give her at least an 80 percent chance of survival.

She is using this technique, which generations of African-Americans have used for survival, for fame and profit.

My survival no longer offers the time, but to see others expressing frustration they can barely put into words is helpful.

James brought little in the way of survival skills, but his companionship at night raised the team morale.

Her hold on her position at the hospital—and thus, her survival—is tenuous and she knows it.

The moment that we introduce the operation of human volition and activity, that, too, becomes one of the factors of "survival."

In the milk teeth of man we have another useless and often annoying survival of an ancient state of the dental organs.

Its most probable explanation is that it appears as a passing survival of the first permanent coat of hair of the lower mammals.

There is great perseverance, aye, moral courage of no mean order, in his survival in the movement.

Mr. Douce thinks the custom of choosing valentines was a survival from the Roman feast of the Lupercalia.

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survivablesurvival bag