Survive

How to spell survive

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce survive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does survive mean?

1. verbTo continue to live or exist, especially after a danger, hardship, or difficult event.

Survive in a sentence

• The family managed to survive the long winter on stored food.

• Few small businesses survive their first three years without careful planning.

Where does survive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin supervivere, which meant 'to live on' or 'to outlive', formed from super 'over, beyond' and vivere 'to live'. The literal idea was that of living past a point that others did not reach, whether that meant outlasting a person, an event, or a hardship. English took the word in the fifteenth century through the Old French survivre, and the prefix was softened in spelling and sound from super to the familiar sur-. The same vivere root lives on in a whole family of English words, including 'vivid', 'revive', and 'vivacious', all of which carry the sense of life. Knowing that the middle holds viv, the root for 'live', helps fix the single v that some writers mistakenly double.

How the word is built

• sur- (over, beyond, from Latin super)
• viv (live, from Latin vivere)
• -e