vital
/ˈvaɪtəl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.38 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Relating to or characteristic of life.
adj
Necessary to the continuation of life; being the seat of life; being that on which life depends.
adj
adj
Relating to the recording of life events.
adj
Very important.
adj
Example Sentences
- "vital energies; vital functions; vital actions"
- "But open converse is there none, So much the vital spirits sink To see the vacant chair, and think, ‘How good! how kind! and he is gone.’"
- "The brain is a vital organ."
- "And doen the heavens afford him vitall food?"
- "We have argued that organizatory agents are operative in all vital processes, processes that overstep the limits of the physicochemical; […]"
- "Challenger breathed two or three times with enormous gulps, his lungs roaring as he drew in the vital gas."
Etymology
From Middle English vital, from Old French vital, from Latin vītālis (“of life, life-giving”), from vīta (“life”), from vīvō (“to live”). Doublet of jiva and quick.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *gʷeyh₃-, vital, vītālis