lived
verb
Form of live , past tense of live.
Simple meaning
Be an inhabitant of or reside in.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lyvdIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlaɪvd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
past tense of live
Be an inhabitant of or reside in
“People lived in Africa millions of years ago.”
past tense of live
To be alive; to have life.
past tense of live
To have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Be an inhabitant of or reside in
Used this way, lived is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“People lived in Africa millions of years ago.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “lived in …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: lived in …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use lived
- “People lived in Africa millions of years ago.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.