# living

Pronunciation: say "LIV-ing" /ˈlɪvɪŋ/

## Adjective

1. Having life; alive: possessing the qualities of a live organism rather than being dead or inanimate.
   - Simple: Alive and not dead, like a growing plant or a breathing animal.
   - _Researchers recovered living microbes from ice cores thousands of years old._
   - _He is the last living veteran of the regiment._
6. Still in use or in existence; not extinct, obsolete, or merely historical.
   - Simple: Still used or still around today, not gone or forgotten.
   - _Once a language has no native speakers left, it is no longer a living language._
   - _These customs remain a living tradition, not museum pieces._
9. Continually updated or revised rather than fixed in a final, static form.
   - Simple: Changed and updated often instead of staying the same forever.
   - _The constitution is sometimes described as a living document that courts reinterpret over time._
   - _Engineers keep a living record of every change to the software._
10. True to life; closely and vividly resembling the actual person or thing represented.
   - Simple: Looking exactly like the real person or thing.
   - _She is the living image of her grandmother in old photographs._
   - _The portrait offers a living likeness of the duke, down to the scar on his chin._
11. Used as an intensifier, especially in fixed expressions of fear, anger, or misery.
   - Simple: Used to make a strong phrase even stronger, often when someone is angry or scared.
   - _Commuting in the August heat was a living hell._
   - _The sudden alarm scared the living daylights out of everyone in the office._
13. Of rock or stone, still in its original, natural place and not quarried or detached.
   - Simple: Still part of the ground where it first formed, not cut out or moved.
   - _Petra's tombs were cut from the living rock of desert cliffs._
   - _The cellar's back wall is living stone, part of the mountain itself._
8. Describes a room, space or area meant or fit for people to live in, mainly for daily home life and not for work or storage.
   - Simple: Used for living in at home, not for work or for keeping things.
   - _The converted barn offers plenty of living space downstairs and a separate workshop out back._
   - _The crew's living quarters were cramped but warm, tucked behind the cargo hold._

## Noun

2. The means, especially financial, by which a person supports and maintains life; a livelihood.
   - Simple: The money or work a person needs to pay for food, a home, and daily life.
   - _After the mill closed, many workers struggled to earn a decent living in a town with few other jobs._
   - _She earns her living as a freelance translator._
4. A manner or style of life; the way in which one lives.
   - Simple: A way of life, or how a person lives every day.
   - _After years of high living, he found himself deeply in debt._
   - _The brochure sells the development as the height of luxury living._
5. Those who are alive, considered as a group, often contrasted with the dead.
   - Simple: All the people who are alive now, not the dead.
   - _The memorial lists the fallen so the living will not forget._
   - _In the old belief, the festival was a night when the dead walked among the living._
7. The state or condition of being alive; the fact or experience of having life.
   - Simple: The state of being alive, with all its everyday experiences.
   - _His philosophy held that living, not mere survival, was the goal._
   - _The diary records her fierce appetite for living during the war years._
12. A church office, usually in the Church of England, that provides its holder with an income.
   - Simple: A paid job as a church priest that comes with money or land to live on.
   - _The squire presented his nephew to the living when the old rector retired._
   - _Without a wealthy patron, a curate might wait decades for a living of his own._

## Verb

3. Present participle of live. — present participle of live
   - Simple: Present participle of live. Use it to talk about where or how someone lives for a period of time.
   - _Millions of people are living below the poverty line._
   - _We were living next door to a bakery at the time._

## Origin

**Meanings 1, 3, 6, 8–11, 13** — From Middle English livynge, from Old English lifiġende, the present participle of the verb meaning "to live," essentially "live" plus "-ing." It is related to Dutch levend, German lebend, and Swedish levande, all meaning "living."
**Meanings 2, 4–5, 7, 12** — From Middle English livynge, equivalent to "live" plus "-ing." It is related to Middle Low German lēvinge ("living") and to Middle Dutch levinge, the source of Dutch leving ("way of life").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/living (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).