live

Reading level: easy

Estimated CEFR level: A1 — Beginner

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. verb inhabit or live in; be an inhabitant of
  2. verb lead a certain kind of life; live in a certain style
  3. verb continue to live through hardship or adversity

Etymology

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 lëëbe (“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”).

In classic literature

Synonyms

populate, dwell, inhabit

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