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View synonyms for alive

alive

[ uh-lahyv ]

adjective

  1. having life; living; existing; not dead or lifeless.

    Antonyms: dead

  2. living (used for emphasis):

    the proudest man alive.

  3. in a state of action; in force or operation; active:

    to keep hope alive.

    Antonyms: defunct

  4. full of energy and spirit; lively:

    Grandmother's more alive than most of her contemporaries.

    Synonyms: nimble, active

    Antonyms: lifeless

  5. having the quality of life; vivid; vibrant:

    The room was alive with color.

  6. Electricity. live 2( def 13 ).


alive

/ əˈlaɪv /

adjective

  1. (of people, animals, plants, etc) living; having life
  2. in existence; active

    they kept hope alive

    the tradition was still alive

  3. immediately postpositive and usually used with a superlative of those living; now living

    the happiest woman alive

  4. full of life; lively

    she was wonderfully alive for her age

  5. usually foll by with animated

    a face alive with emotion

  6. foll by to aware (of); sensitive (to)
  7. foll by with teeming (with)

    the mattress was alive with fleas

  8. electronics another word for live 2
  9. alive and kicking
    (of a person) active and in good health
  10. look alive!
    hurry up! get busy!
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • aˈliveness, noun
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Other Words From

  • a·liveness noun
  • half-a·live adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of alive1

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English on līfe “in life”; equivalent to a- 1 + life
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Word History and Origins

Origin of alive1

Old English on līfe in life
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. look alive! pay attention! move quickly!:

    Look alive! We haven't got all day.

  2. alive to, alert or sensitive to; aware of:

    City planners are alive to the necessity of revitalizing deteriorating neighborhoods.

  3. alive with, filled with living things; swarming; teeming:

    The room was alive with mosquitoes.

More idioms and phrases containing alive

  • come alive
  • eat someone alive
  • look alive
  • more dead than alive
  • skin alive
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Example Sentences

More effective disinfection on planes should reduce the transmission of coronavirus via surfaces, such as armrests, where virus left behind by an infected person can stay alive for hours.

From Fortune

To keep females in the breeding stock alive, the company adds the antibiotic tetracycline to the water where the larvae dangle rump-up before transitioning to aerial adulthood.

From around 29,700 to 18,530 years ago, when the animal that yielded nuclear DNA was alive, breeding woolly rhinos numbered about 10,600, the team estimates.

It was helpful to first calculate the probability of keeping the streak alive — that is, getting at least one hit in a game.

It is important that customers know that you are alive and in control of the situation on your side.

The distinction between over-policing and non-responsiveness was alive and well in Bed-Stuy.

Their logic: the sea-creature would come alive and drink up any remaining alcohol.

According to the AP, as of October, there were only four people still alive who be affected by this legislation.

After all, unlike the other vaccines currently in the pipeline, this one is alive and replication-competent.

Shakur remains very much alive, along with Hill, Morales, LeBeef and the others.

On the thirteenth of the same month they bound to the stake, in order to burn alive, a man who had two religious in his house.

To-day I'm more dead than alive, as we had a lesson from him yesterday that lasted four hours.

Sometimes the child lay so still that Aristide arose to see whether he was alive.

So far as their thought is still alive these men will come into the discussion of living questions now.

If they are still Moderns and alive, I defy you to bury them if you are discussing living questions in a full and honest way.

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Related Words

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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aliundealive and kicking