Meaning
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.
Etymology
Origin: Old English
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *leyp- Proto-Germanic *lībanąder. Proto-Germanic *lībą Proto-West Germanic *līb Old English līf Middle English lyf English life 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”).
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms
NYT Puzzle Appearances
Accepted in 20 recorded puzzles:
- 2026-09-27FDEILNU
- 2026-09-08IACEFLT
- 2025-12-18IUBNFEL
- 2025-11-26IALEBFX
- 2025-08-18IBNFELX
- 2025-06-25FBNIELO
- 2025-03-26EFXONIL
- 2025-03-18FOENLIG
- 2024-12-25FALGEIN
- 2024-09-16LCIFEHY
- 2024-08-25FEOLIMT
- 2024-07-07FDEGILN
+8 earlier appearances in the archive.