| English Dictionary |
LIVING
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Dictionary entry overview: What does living mean?
• LIVING (noun)
The noun LIVING has 4 senses:
1. the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities
2. people who are still living
3. the condition of living or the state of being alive
4. the financial means whereby one lives
Familiarity information: LIVING used as a noun is uncommon.
• LIVING (adjective)
The adjective LIVING has 6 senses:
1. pertaining to living persons
2. true to life; lifelike
3. (informal) absolute
4. still in existence
5. still in active use
6. (used of minerals or stone) in its natural state and place; not mined or quarried
Familiarity information: LIVING used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
The experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Synonyms:
life; living
Context example:
he could no longer cope with the complexities of life
Hypernyms ("living" is a kind of...):
experience (the content of direct observation or participation in an event)
Derivation:
live (lead a certain kind of life; live in a certain style)
Sense 2
Meaning:
People who are still living
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Context example:
save your pity for the living
Hypernyms ("living" is a kind of...):
people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)
Antonym:
dead (people who are no longer living)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The condition of living or the state of being alive
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
aliveness; animation; life; living
Context example:
life depends on many chemical and physical processes
Hypernyms ("living" is a kind of...):
being; beingness; existence; face of the earth (the state or fact of existing)
Attribute:
dead (no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "living"):
eternal life; life eternal (life without beginning or end)
skin (a person's skin regarded as their life)
endurance; survival (a state of surviving; remaining alive)
Derivation:
live (have life, be alive)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The financial means whereby one lives
Classified under:
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
Synonyms:
bread and butter; keep; livelihood; living; support; sustenance
Context example:
he could no longer earn his own livelihood
Hypernyms ("living" is a kind of...):
resource (available source of wealth; a new or reserve supply that can be drawn upon when needed)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "living"):
amenities; comforts; conveniences; creature comforts (things that make you comfortable and at ease)
maintenance (means of maintenance of a family or group)
meal ticket (a source of income or livelihood)
subsistence (minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Pertaining to living persons
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Context example:
within living memory
Pertainym:
living (people who are still living)
Sense 2
Meaning:
True to life; lifelike
Context example:
the living image of her mother
Similar:
realistic (aware or expressing awareness of things as they really are)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(informal) absolute
Context example:
beat the living hell out of him
Similar:
absolute (perfect or complete or pure)
Domain usage:
intensifier; intensive (a modifier that has little meaning except to intensify the meaning it modifies)
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Still in existence
Synonyms:
living; surviving
Context example:
the only surviving frontier blockhouse in Pennsylvania
Similar:
extant (still in existence; not extinct or destroyed or lost)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Still in active use
Context example:
a living language
Similar:
extant (still in existence; not extinct or destroyed or lost)
Sense 6
Meaning:
(used of minerals or stone) in its natural state and place; not mined or quarried
Context example:
carved into the living stone
Similar:
live (exerting force or containing energy)
Context examples
The visualization, characterization and measurement of biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels in humans and other living systems.
(Molecular Imaging, NCI Thesaurus)
The scientists implanted 21 ova into surrogate mother monkeys, resulting in six pregnancies, two of which produced living animals.
(Healthy cloned monkeys born in Shanghai, Wikinews)
The event interferes with usual activities of daily living, causing discomfort but poses no significant or permanent risk of harm to the research participant.
(Moderate Adverse Event, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)
Pus is a mixture of living and dead white blood cells, germs, and dead tissue.
(Abscess, NIH)
Then it would be time for me to announce that I was still in the land of the living.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Successful as he was with squirrels, there was one difficulty that prevented him from living and growing fat on them.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Is a microscopic organ component that consists of organelles and is the fundamental structural and functional unit of living organisms (UMLS); together with other cells and intercellular matrix, it constitutes tissues.
(Murine Cell Types, NCI Thesaurus/UWDA)
Cells are the fundamental, structural, and functional units of living organisms.
(Murine Cell Types, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
I fear I am myself the only living soul within the place.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
We were principally in town, living in very good style.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Who is lazy today, regrets it later." (Albanian proverb)
"Fire is more bearable than disgrace." (Arabic proverb)
"Little by little the measure is filled." (Corsican proverb)