live.
To be alive; to have life.
Meaning & usage
To be alive; to have life.
He's not expected to live for more than a few months.
To have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside.
I live at 2a Acacia Avenue. At that time I'd been living in a camper for about six months.
To have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside. (of an object) to have its proper place; to normally be stored.
I washed your gravy boat. Where does it live?
To survive; to persevere; to continue.
To endure in memory; to escape oblivion.
Her memory lives in that song.
To cope.
You'll just have to live with it! I can't live in a world without you.
To pass life in a specified manner.
It is difficult to live in poverty. And they lived happily ever after.
To spend, as one's life; to pass; to maintain; to continue in, constantly or habitually.
To live an idle or a useful life.
To act habitually in conformity with; to practice; to exemplify in one's way of life.
To live as; to live being.
To outlast danger; (of a ship or boat) to float.
That rockslide trapped me in a cave, and I was trapped for three days, but I lived.
No ship could live in such a storm.
To maintain or support one's existence; to provide for oneself; to feed; to subsist.
It is hard to live on the minimum wage. They lived on stale bread. Man shall not live by bread alone.
To make the most of life; to experience a full, rich life.
I'm sick of spending every day studying at home: I want to go out there and live!
To spend a great deal of time in a particular place.
She lives on the Internet.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English lefe, lifen, libbe, libben, live, luvien, lyven, from Old English libban, lifian (“to live; be alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *libbjan, from Proto-Germanic *libjaną (“to live”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick”). Cognates Cognate with Yola live (“to live”), North Frisian laawe, lawe, lewe, lewi, lewwe, lääwe (“to live”), Saterland Frisian lieuwje, líeuwje (“to live”), West Frisian libje (“to live”), Alemannic German läbe (“to live”), Cimbrian and Mòcheno lem (“to live”), Dutch leeven, leven (“to live”), German leben (“to live”), German Low German lęven (“to live”), Limburgish leve, léëve (“to live”), Luxembourgish liewen (“to live”), Vilamovian łaowa (“to live”), Yiddish לעבן (lebn, “to live”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål leve (“to live”), Faroese liva (“to live”), Icelandic lifa (“to live”), Norwegian Nynorsk leva, leve, liva (“to live”), Swedish leva (“to live”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (liban, “to live”); also Latin lippus (“half-sighted, myopic”), Greek λίπος (lípos, “fat, tallow”), Lithuanian lipti (“to stick”), Bulgarian лепя́ (lepjá, “to glue, paste, stick; to plaster, smear”), Czech lepit (“to glue, stick”), Macedonian лепи (lepi, “to glue, stick”), Polish lepić (“to mold; to glue, paste; to stick”), Russian лепи́ть (lepítʹ, “to fashion, sculpt, shape”), Serbo-Croatian лепити, лије́пити, lépiti, lijépiti (“to glue, paste; to stick”), Slovak lepiť (“to stick”), Slovene lepiti (“to stick”), Ukrainian ліпити (lipyty, “to mould, shape”), Sanskrit लिप् (lip, “to anoint, smear; to defile, soil, taint”), रिप् (rip, “deceit, fraud; injury; enemy, traitor”).
Having life; that is alive.
The post office will not ship live animals.
Being in existence; actual.
He is a live example of the consequences of excessive drinking.
Having active properties; being energized.
Because the vaccinia virus is live, it is important to follow care instructions for the vaccination site.
Operational; in actual use rather than in testing etc.
Operational; in actual use rather than in testing etc. Of an object or value: that may potentially be used in the future execution of a program.
Taken from a living animal.
live feathers
Imparting power; having motion.
the live spindle of a lathe
a live, or driving, axle
Still in active play.
a live ball
Of a card: not yet dealt or played.
Being broadcast (“on the air”), as it happens.
The station presented a live news program every evening.
Are we live?
In person.
This nightclub has a live band on weekends.
Recorded from a performance in front of an audience.
a live album
Able to fire or explode (of firearms or explosives).
The air force practices dropping live bombs on the uninhabited island.
Of an environment where sound is recorded: having noticeable reverberation.
Electrically charged or energized, usually with a risk of causing electrocution if touched.
Use caution when working near live wires.
Being a bet which can be raised by the bettor, usually in reference to a blind or straddle.
Tommy's blind was live, so he was given the option to raise.
Featuring humans; not animated, in the phrases “live actors” or “live action”.
Being in a state of ignition; burning.
a live coal; live embers
Vivid; bright.
Energetic, attentive, active.
a live man, or orator
Outstanding, top-notch, exhilarating.
Of a syllable in languages such as Thai and Burmese: resonating, not ending abruptly.
Where this word comes from
An apheretic form of alive.
Of an event, as it happens; in real time; direct.
The concert was broadcast live by radio.
Of making a performance or speech, in person.
He'll be appearing live at the auditorium.
Where this word comes from
An apheretic form of alive.
Try it on your idea.
live has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.