livelihood
/ˈlaɪvlihʊd/noun
livelihood is spelled L-I-V-E-L-I-H-O-O-D. The wrong spelling people search most is livelyhood: about 120 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Livelihood is a noun meaning “A means of providing the necessities of life for oneself (for example, a job or income)”. The plural of livelihood is livelihoods.
How many letters and syllables are in livelihood?
| Letters | 10: L-I-V-E-L-I-H-O-O-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.6 times per million words; the 16,687th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, livelyhood, about 120 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell livelihood?
Livelihood is spelled L-I-V-E-L-I-H-O-O-D. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for livelihood in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is livelihood?
Livelihood appears 2.6 times per million words in written English, the 16,687th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce livelihood?
- UK /ˈlaɪvlihʊd/
- US /ˈlaɪvlihʊd/
- /ˈlaɪvlɪhʉd/
Livelihood has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-livelihood.wav, En-us-livelihood.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of livelihood
- livelihoods plural
- livelod
- lyuelode
- lyvelod
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does livelihood mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A means of providing the necessities of life for oneself (for example, a job or income).
an independent livelihood; to make / earn / gain / win a good livelihood by the sweat of one's brow
- 2
archaicProperty which brings in an income; an estate.
- 3
obsoleteLiveliness; appearance of life.
- 4
obsoleteThe course of someone's life; a person's lifetime, or their manner of living; conduct, behaviour.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Livelihood in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense means of supporting oneself:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | gagne-pain, subsistance |
| German | Lebensunterhalt, Lebensgrundlage, Auskommen, Existenzgrundlage, täglich Brot, Erwerbsquelle |
| Portuguese | ganha-pão, sustento |
| Spanish | modus vivendi, manera/forma de ganarse la vida, modo de ganarse la vida, medio de subsistencia |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does livelihood come from?
From Middle English liflode, from Old English līflād (“course of life, conduct”), from līf (“life”) + lād (“course, journey”), later altered under the influence of lively, -hood. Compare life, lode.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).