survive
verb
Simple meaning
Continue; also, to live past.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
servyvSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
sɚˈvaɪv
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
Continue to live and avoid dying
intransitive
Of a person, to continue to live; to remain alive.
transitive
To live past (a life-threatening event)
transitive
To live longer than (someone); to outlive (someone or something); to outlast (something).
intransitive
Of an object or concept, to continue to exist.
intransitive
To be a victim of nonfatal but substantial harm and nonetheless to display the strength to heal; especially, after a crime or an illness, especially sexual or physical abuse or assault, cancer, or a natural disaster.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Continue to live and avoid dying
Used this way, survive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use survive
- “He survived the cancer against all odds.”verb
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Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A deep feeling of guilt often experienced by those who have survived some catastrophe that took the lives of many others.
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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.