vital
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: vī'təl
ipa: /ˈvaɪtəl/
rhymes: -aɪtəl
Forms: form: more vital
form: most vital
Etymology: From Middle English vital, from Old French vital, from Latin vītālis (“of life, life-giving”), from vīta (“life”), from vīvō (“I live”). Doublet of jiva and quick.
Senses: examples: text: vital energies; vital functions; vital actions
text: 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.’
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 34:
synonyms: lifely
glosses: Relating to or characteristic of life.
examples: text: The brain is a vital organ.
text: And doen the heavens afford him vitall food?
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12:
text: We have argued that organizatory agents are operative in all vital processes, processes that overstep the limits of the physicochemical; […]
ref: 1925, Seba Eldridge, The Organization of Life, page 164:
text: Challenger breathed two or three times with enormous gulps, his lungs roaring as he drew in the vital gas.
ref: 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
glosses: Necessary to the continuation of life; being the seat of life; being that on which life depends.
glosses: Invigorating or life-giving.
examples: text: The transition to farming was vital for the creation of civilisation.
glosses: Necessary to continued existence.
examples: text: Birth, marriage and death certificates are vital records.
glosses: Relating to the recording of life events.
examples: text: It is vital that you don't forget to do your homework.
text: David Cameron insists that his latest communications data bill is “vital to counter terrorism”. Yet terror is mayhem. It is no threat to freedom. That threat is from counter-terror, from ministers capitulating to securocrats.
ref: 2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23:
text: Vocabulary is a vital component of educational success in both first and second language contexts.
ref: 2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 105:
text: Typically for the 'get-on-with-it' era, the railway and military worked like demons to restore the vital rail link. The crater was rapidly filled in and the earth tamped solid, the wreckage was removed by breakdown trains, new rails and sleepers were rushed forward by willing hands, and US Army bulldozers piled in. By 2020 on the same day, both tracks were open for traffic again where there had been a gaping pit just hours before.
ref: 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
synonyms: word: crucial
word: necessary
word: significant
word: big
word: central
word: consequential
word: critical
word: crucial
word: epochful
word: essential
word: extraordinary
word: fateful
word: fatefraught
word: fatesome
word: heavy
word: pivotal
word: high on the totem pole
word: historic
word: innegligible
word: key
word: life-or-death
word: meaningful
word: necessary
word: noted
word: noticeable
word: observable
word: outstanding
word: paramount
word: pertinent
word: relevant
word: remarkable
word: salient
word: significant
word: unignorable
word: valuable
word: vital
word: weighty
glosses: Very important.
examples: text: spirits that live throughout, vital in every part
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways.
ref: 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series:
text: The dart […]pierced a vital part.
ref: 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book V”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
synonyms: word: extant
word: live
word: kicking
word: above ground
word: alive
word: alive and kicking
word: alive and well
word: animate
word: animated
word: extant
word: kicking
word: live
word: lively
word: livesome
word: living
word: quick
word: still with us
word: surviving
word: undeceased
word: vital
word: vitalic
glosses: Containing life; living.
examples: text: Montreal is a charming vital city with a large lesbian and gay population which clusters around a neighborhood not far from the center of town.
ref: 1984 February 4, M. S., “Celles qui aiment: The Lesbians of Montreal”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 14:
glosses: Lively, having vitality
examples: text: Pythagoras and Hippocrates […] affirming the birth of the seventh month to be vital.
ref: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Capable of living; in a state to live; viable.
Derived terms: élan vital
noeud vital
vital air
vital capacity
vital effect
vital force
vital function
vital organ
vital sign
vital signs
vital spark
vital statistic
vital statistics
Related terms: devive
revive
survive
viable
vitality
vitals
vivid