life means synonym of God's life (an oath). It carries an Arena rating of 1502, earned across 16 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, life ranks #443 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #1,806 of 17,111 for Most Sublime Words, #3,538 of 17,118 for Scariest Words, #4,582 of 17,113 for Most Elegant Words.
life is pronounced /ˈlaɪ̯f/.
Why “life” is a great word
The condition of sustained animate existence, distinguished by processes like metabolism, growth, and reproduction. From Middle English lyf, from Old English līf, from Proto-West Germanic *līb, from Proto-Germanic *lībą ("life, body"), from *lībaną ("to remain, stay"), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- ("to stick, glue"). Unlike "existence," which denotes mere being, or "death," which marks its absolute cessation, life is the specific, precarious vibration between the two. It is the stubborn green shoot cracking the pavement, the metabolizing warmth of a sleeping animal, and the relentless, self-replicating pulse of a cell—a tenacious clinging to being, a fragile seam of continuity stitched through time by the simple act of staying.
Etymology
From Middle English lyf, from Old English līf, from Proto-West Germanic *līb, from Proto-Germanic *lībą (“life, body”), from *lībaną (“to remain, stay, be left”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick, glue”).
Cognate with Scots life, leif (“life”), Saterland Frisian Lieuw (“body”), West Frisian liif (“body”), Cimbrian laip (“body”), Dutch lijf (“body”) and leven (“life”), German Leib (“body; womb”) and Leben (“life”), Low German Lief (“body; life”), Luxembourgish Leif, Läif (“body”), Vilamovian łaowa (“life”), Yiddish לײַב (layb, “body”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish liv (“life; waist”), Faroese lív (“life”), Icelandic líf (“life”). Related to belive.
The sense "biography" is likely a semantic loan from Medieval Latin vīta (“biography; hagiography”).
intj
- Synonym of God's life (an oath).
noun
- The state of organisms preceding their death, characterized by biological processes such as metabolism and reproduction and distinguishing them from inanimate objects; the state of being alive and living.e.g.“I want my kids to live a good life. He gave up on life.”
- The state of organisms preceding their death, characterized by biological processes such as metabolism and reproduction and distinguishing them from inanimate objects; the state of being alive and living.; The status possessed by any of a number of entities, including animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and sometimes viruses, which have the properties of replication and metabolism.
- The animating principle or force that keeps an inorganic thing or concept metaphorically alive (dynamic, relevant, etc) and makes it a "living document", "living constitution", etc.e.g.“The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.”
- Lifeforms, generally or collectively.e.g.“It's life, but not as we know it. She discovered plant life on the planet. The rover discovered signs of life on the alien world.”
- A living being; the fact of a particular individual being alive. (Chiefly when indicating individuals were lost (died) or saved.)e.g.“Many lives were lost during the war. Her quick thinking saved many dogs' lives.”
- Existence.e.g.“Life is meaningless and we are all going to die.”
- Existence.; A worthwhile existence.e.g.“He gets up early in the morning, works all day long — even on weekends — and hardly sees his family. That's no life! His life was ruined by drugs.”
- Existence.; A particular aspect of existence.e.g.“He struggled to balance his family life, social life and work life.”
- Existence.; Social life.e.g.“Get a life.”
- Existence.; Something which is inherently part of a person's existence, such as job, family, a loved one, etc.e.g.“She's my love, my life. Running the bakery is her life.”
- A period of time during which something has existence.; The period during which one (a person, an animal, a plant; a civilization, species; a star; etc) is alive.
- A period of time during which something has existence.; The span of time during which an object operates.e.g.“Even if the bill's life is brief, the member who introduced it can still campaign as its champion.”
- A period of time during which something has existence.; The period of time during which an object is recognizable.e.g.“The life of this milk carton may be thousands of years in this landfill.”
- A period of time during which something has existence.; A particular phase or period of existence.e.g.“This would require that reproductive cells do not exist early on but rather are produced during the organism's adult life from the gemules sent from the various organs.”
- A period of time during which something has existence.; A period extending from a when a (positive or negative) office, punishment, etc is conferred on someone until that person dies (or, sometimes, reaches retirement age).e.g.“Typically, an appointed judge is appointed for life.”
verb
- To replace components whose operational lifetime has expired.
name
- God.e.g.“Then one deep love doth supersede
All other, when her ardent gaze
Roves from the living brother’s face,
And rests upon the Life indeed.”
- Conway's Game of Life.
- A surname.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.