vitality
Americannoun
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exuberant physical strength or mental vigor.
a person of great vitality.
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capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence.
the vitality of an institution.
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power to live or grow.
the vitality of a language.
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vital force or principle.
noun
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physical or mental vigour, energy, etc
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the power or ability to continue in existence, live, or grow
the vitality of a movement
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a less common name for vital force
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of vitality
First recorded in 1585–95; from Latin vītālitās, from vītāli(s) vital + -tās -ty 2
Explanation
Are you full of life? Vigorous and energetic? Lucky you. You have vitality, the state of being strong and in great health. Vitality also has the general meaning of "life force," as in the mysterious power that separates the living from the dead. The phrase "vital organs" comes from vitality, meaning a person's inner organs most essential to life. Abstract things can also have vitality, as in "the vitality of the state" or the vitality of Broadway Theater."
Vocabulary lists containing vitality
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Grade 9, List 5
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "V"
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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:
Democracy is the heart of our nation’s constitutional regime, and its health underwrites the Constitution’s own vitality.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026
One of the biggest questions in aging research is why people tend to lose energy and vitality over time.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026
But in the next line, his contemporary Menander asserts that though it may rob us of our vitality, time nevertheless “adds to our acuity of mind.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
The physical exam is one way a president can outwardly demonstrate his own vitality and therefore project a sense of political power.
From BBC ● May 30, 2026
“Now standing erect without external support, his closed hands fixed firmly to his thighs, the kouros expresses the confident vitality that is characteristic of the best of his brothers.”
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Though the vitalities of D.C., the commercial real estate market and local businesses are important, the editorial’s rationale for determining the balance between at-home and in-office work for federal employees was misplaced.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2023
Jonas’s protagonist looks on her world with an eye alive to both the comic excesses and the enviable vitalities of her students.
From New York Times ● May 13, 2022
He seeks to lose himself "in some aspect of the world's vitalities."
From Time Magazine Archive
Had these raging passions been fed with other vitalities?
From The Conqueror by Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
Milton likened the world to an obscuring mist--a fog that renders dim and indistinct the great realities and vitalities of life.
From A Handful of Stars Texts That Have Moved Great Minds by Boreham, Frank
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.
