“Lives” is a form of
life
/ˈlaɪ̯f/ noun, verb, interjection, proper noun
Also a form of leaf
Forms lives lifes lifing lifed lyfe
- noun (uncountable) 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. “I want my kids to live a good life. He gave up on life.”
- noun (biology) 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.
- noun 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.
- noun Lifeforms, generally or collectively.
- noun (countable) A living being; the fact of a particular individual being alive. (Chiefly when indicating individuals were lost (died) or saved.) “Many lives were lost during the war. Her quick thinking saved many dogs' lives.”
- noun Existence. “Life is meaningless and we are all going to die.”
- noun A worthwhile existence. “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.”
- noun A particular aspect of existence. “He struggled to balance his family life, social life and work life.”
- verb (aviation) To replace components whose operational lifetime has expired.
- interjection (obsolete) Synonym of God's life (an oath).
- proper noun (chiefly Christian Science) God.
- proper noun (cellular automata) Conway's Game of Life.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
existence experience the world in general God's life living animation aliveness lifetime life-time lifespan liveliness spirit sprightliness biography life story life history life sentence
Antonyms
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”).
Variant of Leaf.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The state of being which begins with generation, birth, or germination, and ends with death; also, the time during which this state continues; that state of an animal or plant in which all or any of its organs are capable of performing all or any of their functions; --used of all animal and vegetable organisms.
- noun Of human being: The union of the soul and body; also, the duration of their union; sometimes, the deathless quality or existence of the soul; as, man is a creature having an immortal life.
Etymology [AS. l; akin to D. lijf body, G. leib body, MHG. l life, body, OHG. l life, Icel. l, life, body, Sw. lif, Dan. liv, and E. live, v. Live, and cf. Alive.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “life”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details