# live

> English word · Verb · IPA /lɪv/ · frequency rank #263

## Definitions
1. To be alive; to have life.
2. To have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside.
3. To have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside.
4. To survive; to persevere; to continue.
5. To endure in memory; to escape oblivion.
6. To cope.
7. To pass life in a specified manner.
8. To spend, as one's life; to pass; to maintain; to continue in, constantly or habitually.
9. To act habitually in conformity with; to practice; to exemplify in one's way of life.
10. To live as; to live being.
11. To outlast danger; (of a ship or boat) to float.
12. To maintain or support one's existence; to provide for oneself; to feed; to subsist.
13. To make the most of life; to experience a full, rich life.

## 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”).

## Easily confused with
- **LV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lv)
- **Liz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-liz)
- **luv** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-luv)
- **lye** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lye)
- **love** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-love)
- **lose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lose)
- **Luke** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-luke)
- **lone** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lone)
- **lure** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lure)
- **lowe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lowe)
- **lore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lore)
- **lobe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lobe)
- **Lyle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lyle)
- **Lyme** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lyme)
- **lube** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lube)
- **luce** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-luce)
- **luxe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-luxe)
- **Lupe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lupe)
- **lute** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lute)
- **Lviv** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/live-vs-lviv)

## Common misspellings (5)
`ilve`, `liev`, `livve`, `llive`, `lvie`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/live