Surviving

How to spell surviving

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce surviving

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does surviving mean?

1. verbContinuing to live or exist, especially after a threat, hardship, or difficult period.
2. adjectiveStill existing or living after others have died or after something has ended.

Surviving in a sentence

• verb

  She is surviving on a very tight budget until payday.

• adjective

  The only surviving relative inherited the entire estate.

• verb

  The small bakery is barely surviving the rise in rent.

• adjective

  A surviving copy of the original contract was found in the archive.

Where does surviving come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is the present participle of 'survive', which traces back to the Latin verb supervivere, a compound of super, meaning 'over' or 'beyond', and vivere, meaning 'to live'. Put together, the literal sense was 'to outlive' or 'to go on living past something', whether that something was a danger, a hardship, or another person. English picked it up in the fifteenth century through Anglo-French and Old French forms such as survivre. The Latin vivere is the same root that gives us 'vivid', 'revive', and 'vivacious', all carrying that core idea of life. A handy spelling reminder is that the single v of 'live' carries straight through into 'surviving', with the silent e of 'survive' dropped before the -ing ending.

How the word is built

• sur- (over, beyond, from Latin super)
• viv (live, from Latin vivere)
• -ing (present participle/adjective suffix)