- present participle of live.
living
Usage
What are other ways to say living?
Living and livelihood (a somewhat more formal word), both refer to what one earns to keep (oneself) alive, but are seldom interchangeable within the same phrase: to earn one's living; to threaten one's livelihood. “To make a living” suggests making just enough to keep alive, and is particularly frequent in the negative: You cannot make a living out of that. “To make a livelihood out of something” suggests rather making a business of it: to make a livelihood out of knitting hats. Maintenance refers usually to what is spent for the living of another: to provide for the maintenance of someone. Maintenance occasionally refers to the allowance itself provided for livelihood: They are entitled to a maintenance from this estate.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
MIT researchers have engineered bacteria to work like transistors, creating living "circuit boards" that can be printed onto growth material inside a Petri dish.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
It was hanging above a green sofa in the living room of Patricia Kadgien, whose father Friedrich Kadgien had been a top adviser to Hermann Goring, Adolf Hitler's deputy.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
“There are no Justices from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has 67 million Americans living there,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
They also didn’t attempt to measure the number living unsheltered around what will become the athletes’ Olympic Village at UCLA.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
But Ushers, Brickbane once explained, had already left the gravity of their living bodies.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
