adj.
- Possessing life: famous living painters; transplanted living tissue.
- In active function or use: a living language.
- Of persons who are alive: events within living memory.
- Relating to the routine conduct or maintenance of life: improved living conditions in the city.
- Full of life, interest, or vitality: made history a living subject.
- True to life; realistic: the living image of her mother.
- Informal. Used as an intensive: beat the living hell out of his opponent in the boxing match.
- The condition or action of maintaining life: the high cost of living.
- A manner or style of life: preferred plain living.
- A means of maintaining life; livelihood: made their living by hunting.
- Chiefly British. A church benefice, including the revenue attached to it.
SYNONYMS living, alive, live, animate, animated, vital. These adjectives mean possessed of or exhibiting life. Living, alive, and live refer principally to organisms that are not dead: living plants; the happiest person alive; a live canary. Animate applies to living animal as distinct from living plant life: Something animate was moving inside the box. Animated suggests renewed life, vigor, or spirit: The argument became very animated. Vital refers to what is characteristic of or necessary to the continuation of life: You must eat to maintain vital energy.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
