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relive

[ree-liv] / riˈlɪv /




Frequently Asked Questions

What is another word for relive?
To relive something means to experience it again in some way—to reexperience it. Sometimes, relive means to vividly recall the experience in your mind, as if you’re living through it again. In this way, to relive is really to remember. Often, saying that you relived an event really means that a memory of it triggered the same emotions you felt during the original experience. Sometimes, we relive experiences in our dreams, and sometimes in flashbacks. When this happens, the mind recreates the experience from our memories. In movies like Groundhog Day, characters literally relive the same day over and over again—they repeat it again and again until Andie MacDowell falls in love with them.
How is relive different from reminisce?
The meanings of relive and reminisce can overlap. When you reminisce about past events, it’s often an intentional way of trying to relive them. Reminiscing is commonly done through talking about those events with other people who also experienced them, which can stir memories and emotions. But there are differences. Reminisce is always used in the context of fond memories, and reminiscing is always intentional, while relive can be used in positive contexts (fond memories) or negative ones (traumatic memories), and reliving an experience in your mind sometimes happens even when you don’t want it to.
Is it relive or re-live?
Like many other words that begin with the prefix re- (meaning “again”), relive is typically spelled without a hyphen. In some words that begin with the prefix re-, a hyphen is necessary to distinguish one word from another that would be spelled the same but has an entirely different meaning, such as resign (as in quit) and re-sign (as in sign again). This is not an issue with relive.

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.

See Examples For:

If you joined the party during the reign of the Twilight Singers, this won’t sound drastically different; if you ignored the Twilight Singers but were waiting to relive “Gentlemen,” too bad.

From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026

He was already looking forward to the end of his morning meeting so he and other football-loving colleagues could relive the match over another cup of coffee.

From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026

I think there’s a lot of beauty in being able to be together as young women and relive some of these memories, but also cheer her on as she continues developing further.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026

"This is something I have to relive every day," she said.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

A camera goes down with you, though, videotaping your simulated death, so you can take it home and relive those 8.5 seconds in the comfort of your living room.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

Instead of the typical rock-star tale that relives the glory days and gives short shrift to the rest, the former Black Sabbath frontman chose to lay bare his recent medical struggles in grisly detail.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025

And he relives his glory days, this time as the starting quarterback for the fictional South Georgia Catfish.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025

She relives the events in her dreams, she says.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2024

And don’t be surprised if he provides this fan base with a collection of ninth-inning heroics that posterity relives for decades to come.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 23, 2023

In other words, the song relives and retells the experiences of a child in another century and makes her story highly relatable to us today.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

“Over the course of many weeks during three separate trials, she relived unthinkably painful experiences in front of complete strangers,” said Bragg.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

This was only Chelsea's third clean sheet in 12 matches and boss Enzo Maresca was relived to emerge unscathed for once.

From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2025

It is relived daily through stories passed down, names found in tribunal transcripts and artifacts pulled from mass graves.

From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2025

A child’s game of blasting aliens with a toy gun is relived as it played out in Tiny’s imagination.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2024

She’d relived her entire past, right through to the present.

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan

That procedure, they argued, would result in “Christa involuntarily reliving the worst moments of her life, much like traumatized soldiers when they return from a war zone.”

From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026

By interrupting the repeated nighttime reliving of trauma, the treatment allowed many of them to sleep more peacefully.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

"Why did I sit and put myself through the pain of going to court, going through a trial, reliving everything because of evidence and watching it all happen again?" she said.

From BBC ● May 27, 2026

But it hasn’t stopped her from reliving it all.

From Salon ● May 27, 2026

I shiver despite myself, reliving the icy shock of the water from just a few hours ago.

From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott




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