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)
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lived,
past participle, past
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living
present participle
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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:
But why can reds and greys not live cheek by jowl?
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
Lee said he’s not interested in the responsibility: “I try to live stress free.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
Study co-author Alessandro Chiarenza, a paleontologist at University College London, said an internally regulated body temperature could have allowed tyrannosaurs to live in regions where cold-blooded reptiles struggled to survive.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
Every day I try to find at least one child I didn’t know and have a personal conversation, ‘What middle school he went to, where does he live, are his studies OK.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
Is she here to tell me that I can’t go to Sunridge, that I have to live with him, that I have no choice but to do what he wants?
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Things start to go awry for Bryan when, during a snowstorm, he is driving to a hospital to deliver a medical package he assumes is a liver or a heart.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
How quickly the liver can processes the caffeine depends on a single gene – known as CYP1A2.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
But other drugs in Roche’s pipeline such as enicepatide for obesity, pegozafermin for fatty liver disease and fenebrutinib for multiple sclerosis could see upgrades to consensus expectations, they add.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Williamson underwent a liver transplant earlier this year, prompting a judge to delay a February hearing in her case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Furthermore, there had been no signs of liver damage, such as severe bleeding.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
But Cult is assaying the livest of stories.
From Time ● Sep. 5, 2017
Since most Britons fear they may go cold next winter, the coal problem is the livest issue in Britain today.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I'm the livest, kickingest person you ever saw," he fumed.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her late-night calls to reporters once made her phone line the livest wire in Washington.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Fabueno!" cried the cavalier, recovering himself a little: "If thou livest, thou liest; for Lorenzo is dead!"
From Calavar or The Knight of The Conquest, A Romance of Mexico by Robert Montgomery Bird
He added that people should learn from Princess Diana's example, and that for anyone being "destroyed daily" by the tabloid press, it must be a "cancerous influence" on their lives.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
We take you inside the daily lives of the workers keeping AI online, from engineers checking rooftops for bird damage to technicians hunkering down on cots during extreme weather to keep servers running 24/7.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
Former Crenshaw football coach Robert Garrett said he learned to talk to students about their personal lives to understand why they are behaving in certain ways.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
Many fans and members of the coaches' families also visited London for the first time, and ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham said they had "an experience they will remember for the rest of their lives".
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
“I was hanging out with a friend who lives near here. And now I’m just waiting for my Uber.”
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
The Spanish Diplodocus lived roughly 150 million years ago, near the end of the Jurassic Period.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
She’s lived through it, not the version stand-up bros claim to have suffered during their latest Netflix specials.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
"If someone had truly understood this tree was deeply loved, they probably would not have made the decision to inject herbicide," says Kim Min-joo, who has lived in Buam-dong for more than a decade.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Two of these three check out: Warhol and Wilson died as stated, but Reed lived for another 30 years, dying in 2013 of liver disease.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
I just said a surprised, ‘Oh!’ and maybe, ‘Hi!’ – acting as though I had no idea he lived in that house.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
Residents living near to a fire-damaged seaside hotel in Folkestone have been evacuated over safety fears that the intensity of the basement blaze weakened the building's structure, the council has said.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
The 76-year-old lawmaker is the lone name on a lawsuit aimed at keeping an institution in the heart of Washington, D.C., operating as a living memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
The gut microbiota refers to the enormous community of bacteria and other microorganisms living in the digestive tract.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
The Peterson Foundation’s survey also found 70% of voters think candidates aren’t talking enough about the debt and its impact on the cost of living.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 20, 2026
It was like walking through a playhouse; we passed a deserted living room with a settee beside a fireplace, then a fake patio, then an artist’s loft.
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.
